“What are the AF officers at the Pentagon smoking? Total disregard for the lives of US soldiers.”
No, they are simply being forced to bow to the decision by Congress to cut their funding to the point where whatever program is no longer funded is going to be something which is vital. This means single-purpose aircraft must take second place in priority to multi-purpose aircraft, no matter how superior the single purpose aircraft was for its mission. The only solution is to restore the funding for both the single-role Close Air Support (CAS) mission of the A-10 and the multi-role mission of the F-16 fighter-bomber.
That's pretty much the reason Israelis didn't buy the A10. With the US military, we know the desire is to make it much smaller, and unlike the Israelis, the US is purposely degrading US military capability.
How about not spending the money thrown the toilet of buying bio fuel and other Green boondoogles that have no place in the military budget.