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I never said they were terrible. I merely said they should be disbanded. They have a longstanding institutional culture and it is irreparable. It goes back a long long time, in fact, long before the advent of military aviation. A recent case in point: An Army general is ordered to take down an incumbent regime in Afghanistan. Who goes in first, 400 miles from the beach? Who provides tactical and logistical air support, 400 miles from the beach, for 6-8 weeks while the Air Farce tacair is parked back in Kuwait, looking for landing rights and fuel dumps. You know the answer. [The Air Force bomber community did outstanding work from the gitgo. They are exempt from this reproach] This is the way it is - this is the way things are. Except for the bomber people, the Air Farce is institutionally lame, incompetent, ineffective, and criminally wasteful. Show me one specific example to the contrary, since Billy Mitchell was court martialed.

Except for the bomber people, the Air Farce is institutionally lame, incompetent, ineffective, and criminally wasteful.

Sorry, I cant consider that a serious statement, so I will spare you many examples of excellent Air Force fighter-community work. In order to dispute your statement, it would be necessary to use a comparative example, where there really is none. While the Navy could (and arguably should) take over the role of the Air Force, the Air Force mission requires over-the-top spending on almost every level. Although I subscribe to the Col. Boyd philosophy, while the Air Force did not, they have accomplished much with a complexity vs. numbers argument. If anything, the Air Force is the most political of the services, and that fact shows in the promotion of yes-men over warriors too often than not.