Posted on 06/05/2008 12:04:07 PM PDT by pabianice
Breaking. This has been a long time coming, with SECDEF fighting with the USAF to lose the Cold War mentality and come aboard the 21st century's asymetric warfare.
They need to fire all the freaking bean counters and slogan-mongers and bring in some people who are interested in fighting wars.
Gates thought Airforce was/were/is underutilizing their drone capability and were basically not doing enough for the soldiers and marines in Iraq. And almost anyone who looks into the matter will very likely agree with Gates.
The Airforce doesn’t want anonymous, discrete, unseen drones. The Airforce wants $400,000,000.00 flying Barbaros and winged Big Browns for their future mythic “Knight of the Sky” Heros. The Airforce wants to re-fight World War II, and keeps buying better fighters and bombers to re-win that war.
Did you look over in “breaking news” and “front page news?”
They need to fire all the freaking bean counters and slogan-mongers and bring in some people who are interested in fighting wars.
An investigation into any military leaders CLinton had a hand in appointing or expediting should be done.. No doubt they are traitors or incompetent.. In ALL the services.. Unless he overlooked a war monger being installed.. Which would be fortunate..
This is how we built this military Juggernaut, and it all starts with local control of the air.
America cannot project force without it.
Assuming that your enemy can control the air. In Iraq, our enemy has NO air power, thus making it a moot point.
Not to be picky, but it’s Air Force not Airforce. And the Air Force’s problems aren’t any different than the other services, just getting more attention at this point. Remember the fight Rumsfeld had with top generals??
Why doesn't the enemy have any air power in Iraq?
Answer - because we used our superior air power to destroy it in the first Gulf War.
I agree with both of the previous posters. You can't establish control of the ground until you control the air and you can't establish a victory without boots on the ground.
I have no idea who was or was not appointed by Clinton. But the irony may be that 7 years into the Bush administration, he finally gets around to firing Clinton's people. Then, he appoints someone he likes. Then, Obama is elected president -- first thing Obama may do is fire 100% of the Bush appointees. (Remember how Clinton fired 97% of the US Attorneys?)
Because the Democrats understand how this game is played. The GOP has no clue.
Airforce or Air Force, it’s still stuck in the distant past. Tha Air Force doesn’t want proven-effective electronic surveillance-and-missile drones. It wants $400,000,000.00 flying Barbaros and winged Big Browns for their future mythic “Knight of the Sky” Heros. The Air Force still dreams of re-fighting World War II, and keeps buying better fighters and bombers to re-win that war.
Petraeus got his first star under Clinton. Does that include him? In fact I'd say that all our current crop of 4 stars, and most of the 3 stars, got their first or second star under Clinton.
Drones aren't going to beat the Chinese PLAF someday. We'd better pray for a whole bunch of Raptors and JSFs coming off the lines in the future.
It won’t end the problems. USAF’s attitude problems are institutional in nature. They believe all that “first among equals” stuff. Read Air Force magazine sometime. According to the editors, everyone would be better off if we seized the budgets from the other three services and just bought a bunch of F-22’s.
FYI... The Chinese and Russians are heavily investing in Air to Air drones, and so is Iran. (That’s right, Iran)....
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