Posted on 10/28/2008 7:21:36 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Barney Frank will not soon be named secretary of defense or, insha'Allah, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. So there's really no reason to fear that his recent call to cut defense spending by 25% is a harbinger of what to expect in an Obama administration.
Then again, maybe there is.
When it comes to defense, there are two Barack Obamas in this race. There is the candidate who insists, as he did last year in an article in Foreign Affairs, that "a strong military is, more than anything, necessary to sustain peace"; pledges to increase the size of our ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines while providing them with "first-rate equipment, armor, incentives and training"; and seems to be as gung-ho for a surge in Afghanistan as he was opposed to the one in Iraq.
And then there is the candidate who early this year recorded an ad for Caucus for Priorities, a far-left outfit that wants to cut 15% of the Pentagon's budget in favor of "education, healthcare, job training, alternative energy development, world hunger [and] deficit reduction."
"Thanks so much for the Caucus for Priorities for the great work you've been doing," says Mr. Obama in the ad, before promising to "cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending . . . slow our development of future combat systems . . . not develop new nuclear weapons."
Joe Biden also cut an ad for the group that was even more emphatic: "I'll tell you what we cannot afford . . . a trillion-dollar commitment to 'Star Wars,' new nuclear weapons, a thousand-ship Navy, the F-22 Raptor."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
BTTT
Just like Bill Ayers and Al-Queda..............
Capitol Hill Democrats want to target the Pentagon. ........................ And visa versa I’m sure.
If Obama is elected, Petraeus might be charged as a war criminal.
This is one reason why the Dem's want to reinstate the draft. With a draft, the pay and benefits can be slashed.
The DOD could likely do better with the money they get. It is government after all. However, to think that you can get 15-20% cuts is absurd.
I hate to tell Joe this but I don't think anyone is talking about a trillion for star wars, a thousand ship navy, or new nuclear weapons. And the production run for the F-22 is about mid-way through.
Don’t worry, we’ll save money by replacing all of that expensive military equipment and personnel with a suicide bomber brigade. Cheap and effective!
The Pentagon could do more efficient job of spending the money it is given. There is a certain amount of waste and fraud. But, if Obama’s cuts were to be anything like the Clinton cuts, they will cripple our military dangerously. This would necessitate a quick buildup in the event of a crisis, which sets up the exact circumstances that lead to even more widespread waste and fraud as opposed to a slower, more deliberate and systematic acquistions process. The only brake on this disfunctional cycle is the fact the military bases and programs are spread out across the country, and there are key Democrats in whose districts many civilian jobs related to the military are located (California comes to mind). It remains to be seen how well that brake would work in the worst-case scenario of a far-left government in both the executive and legislative branches.
Democrats, doing the work terrorist can’t do.
After hearing that idiot Joe Biden predict an major crisis and Colon Powell say it will start on Jan 21st, I’m beginning to wonder if he is going to announce at his coronation, that he is unilaterally disarming the United States and ordering our forces to stand down.
Gore reinvented government and saved the US taxpayer millions of dollars by cutting government employees...800,000 of them. The truth was that Gore’s cut was entirely from the military. Democrats hate the US.
Right photo peanut farmer left photo peanut brain.
Why do you ask? The surrender monkeys do not want this country to exist; in its current form at least.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.