Posted on 06/29/2005 8:19:02 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
U.S. struggles on China-war planning - top officer
Wed Jun 29, 2005 03:18 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department is struggling to determine the right mix of bombers and other warplanes to fight China if it ever became necessary, President Bush's choice to become the next Air Force chief of staff said on Wednesday.
Lining up such firepower would top his list of priorities if confirmed as the Air Force's top military officer, Gen. Michael Moseley said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Moseley said the right mix of long-range strike capabilities was "certainly one of the things that we are struggling with" as part of a sweeping U.S. defense review carried out once every four years and currently under way.
"The enhancements that we see in the Chinese military (do) cause concern," he added in reply to a question from Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican.
Moseley who ran the air war over Iraq that led to the ouster of President Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"That is at the top of my list ... long-range strike and the ability to do that for this country," said Moseley, the vice chief of staff up to replace the retiring Gen. John Jumper.
Retired Air Force Col. Walter Boyne, a former director of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum, said Moseley likely was referring to the warplanes -- manned and unmanned -- needed to take out command posts, radar installations, surface-to-air missile sites, air fields and military headquarters. Many such targets are deep in China's interior.
Moseley's comments reflected U.S. concern about mounting Chinese investments in ballistic and cruise missiles that could hold forward U.S. bases at risk of attack in places like South Korea and Japan, said Andrew Krepenivich of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan group specializing in military strategy issues.
"This is not the Air Force saying we want to go to war with China, he said. "This is the Air Force saying if we want to avoid war with China, we've got to be able to hold their critical capabilities at risk lest Beijing be tempted to use force to resolve disputes it has with other countries in the region."
Ping!
Wow what a great message to broadcast to our enemy...
This sort of stuff used to be discussed only in "closed sessions"......the content and the political slant in the way this piece is written is exactly why.
"Wow what a great message to broadcast to our enemy... "
And notice he had to struggle. All our troops struggle in Iraq and Afghanistan also. Our whole military constantly struggle. Our Marine, Airborne, Special Forces, SOPs, SOCs, all wake up each day and what do they do?
They struggle.
How is he going to make airplanes without a domestic manufacturing base? Rubber bands and balsa wood?
Not saying we shouldn't worry about China, but some of the hysterical coverage over the last few days is ridiculous.
Who said they were going to be planes?
The bombers are just standoff cruise missile and guided bomb platforms.
Remember when Rumsfeld announced the Pentagon would have a department of disinformation? And then he said they disbanded it?
;)
Good answer.
Damn good answer.
"DOD is working on the new quadrennial defense review, so the Air Force/Navy have to justify their massive budget outlays. Think about it, what else does the Navy have if China isn't around? The Navy needs China, so that's why you are seeing all these scare stories. "
Sounds a little conspiratorial to me. We are being vigilant enought to reposition B2 Stealth Bombers and other naval and air power to the Pacific during a war in Southwest Asia...so maybe it's not such a conspiracy.
Vigilance is peace throught strength.
You must first have the will to defeat the enemy from
within....
In other words... the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.
The first US 'Plan Orange' for war against Japan was written in 1919.
ROFL! Good call!
That's not always a bad thing, I wouldn't mind seeing more money go the Navy. It's the way the world works, happened all the time in the Cold War. Whenever one of the services was facing cuts, they would instantly cling to some new "developing" Soviet capability that only they could counter. Those B-2's are much more likely to bomb targets in North Korea than in China.
"Remember when Rumsfeld announced the Pentagon would have a department of disinformation? And then he said they disbanded it? ;) "
I may have, not sure, I seem to be in information overload of lately. Couldn't even remember about the PHLANX gun.
But I think I get your point. heh heh.
Public consumption can be a real free for all.
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