Posted on 07/25/2007 8:21:48 AM PDT by Contentions
On Saturday, the New York Times criticized the Pentagon’s spending plans for buying, among other things, the F-22 stealth fighter, also known as the Raptor. According to the paper, that’s just concentrating on “the kind of weapons that might have made sense during the cold war but have little use in the kind of conflicts America is involved in and is likely to face in the foreseeable future.”
The Air Force acquired the F-22 to penetrate the Soviet Union and face its fleet of Su-27 fighters. The Times reasons that, because the USSR disappeared, so did our need for the Raptor. Even if the paper is correct—it’s not—there is one nation that indisputably requires the plane today. Japan at this moment is threatened by China’s growing fleet of Su-27s and has to replace aging F-4’s.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised the F-22 issue with President Bush during their summit this April. Japan would like to buy or build them under license from Lockheed Martin, the plane’s prime contractor. U.S. law prohibits the sale or license of America’s most capable fighter, and a recent attempt to end the ban failed earlier this year. Nonetheless, talk of Raptor sales just won’t go away.
Not only do the Japanese need to buy them, we have a compelling need to sell them...
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
Hmmmmmmmm. There might be a problem with that ...
And don’t we all look to the NYTimes for military advice???
If the slimes is criticizing the F-22 then I know it’s the right plane. But then, I already knew that anyway. :)
The Russians and ChiComs certainly look to the NYTimes as a great military asset.
I do agree that the US should arm and protect Japan with the fullest capability though. I just don’t agree with licensing out latest technology.
The F22 is sorely needed because during this century there will be a world war with China.
If it hasn't started already. We just aren't using military hardware...yet.
Why not design the F-22 so that it can be disabled in flight if sold to other nations? Sounds pretty simple to me.
Good thing there's a democracy set up by the US in the middle of all that mess. ;-)
Wouldn’t that be a great thing...for the enemies to know.
The New York Times is asleep at the helm again.
Instead of having a valid meaningful critisism or editorial, they instead are still stuck in the 60’s peace creep era!
Being ignorant on all things military, they can’t stop their drooling and see defense issues from a peace protest in the park perspective. All they seem to chant is “no war at any cost, peace at any price”.
What they should do to restore their credibility is write about a cost/benefit analysis of the program in it’s totality. Each F22 is costing us $500 million each. Is there anyway to bring down the program costs and how many aircraft do we need to defend America?
Iraq didn’t have an air force worth mentioning, but China has a very large, well trained air force. Any war with China would involve aerial combat between fighters on a scale not seen since World War 2. While the new F-35 is a great multi-role fighter, it will never have the air to air capability that the F-22 has. We need these aircraft as a hedge against Chinese aggression.
That’s for sure!
C-Student logic. Where do newspapers find these morons?
Why not? That plan worked great for both WWI and WWII.
/sarcasm
What these people fail to realize is that America's strong military is the main reason WWIII didn't happen with the USSR.
I love the japanese but I prefer to retain our edge over our enemies for as long as possible, by maintaining our millitary superiority at any cost!!
Peace through overwhelming superior strenght!
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