Posted on 05/25/2016 5:51:58 AM PDT by HomerBohn
We have all seen the buildup of U.S. and NATO troops facing Russia’s western border and the steady push by those two groups in conjunction with the MIC and the IMF to enter the world into a new Cold War against Russia. Some of the equipment is pretty impressive, such as the U.S.S. Admiral Zumwalt that has just been rolled off of the assembly line. But there is an interesting point I wish to make that you may have seen. Did you notice that in terms of effectiveness, the U.S. military has had its hands tied behind its back in terms of overall combat readiness?
The Zumwalt can be taken out with one of those nice new hypersonic missiles the Chinese and Russians have integrated in their systems. As of this piece, the Russians are emplacing new radar detecting equipment to offset the “Aegis ashore” ABM station that has been up and running in Romania since last Thursday. Measure and countermeasures, yes, but in terms of combat readiness, in the words of our own military, we are not up to standards.
On March 22, 2016 a hearing was conducted by Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to discuss the shortage of parts and equipment suffered by the armed forces. The Chairman, Mac Thornberry visited Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station, and found that parts were actually taken from a museum to refit aircraft, as follows:
“…an F/A-18 based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort that flew in the raid against Libya in 1986 needed a part. The part is no longer made and there were none on hand. Crew and pilots checked the F-18s on display at Beaufort to see if they might find a part. No luck. A lieutenant colonel visiting the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier about two hours away in Charleston, South Carolina. saw an F/A-18 of the same model, a HASC staff member told me today. They scrounged the part from what would appear to be the A model on the carrier’s deck. (It’s the only F-18 at the Yorktown. They got the part, but sadly, it didn’t work.”
Breakingdefense.com, article by Colin Clark, March 23, 2016
Reports have mentioned out of Fox News recently that the Air Force is short 4,000 personnel to conduct maintenance, and is short 700 pilots. The Air Force is reduced to relying on spare parts it can scrap out of a desert scrapyard of aircraft known as “The Boneyard.” Fox interviewed a Master Sergeant in the Air Force, stationed at Ellsworth Air Force base in South Dakota and he told about burned-out, overworked air crews and maintenance staff and equipment shortages:
“It’s not only the personnel that are tired, it’s the aircraft that are tired as well,” Master Sgt. Bruce Pfrommer, who has over two decades of experience in the Air Force working on B-1 bombers, told Fox News. “We have only 20 aircraft assigned on station currently. Out of those 20 only nine are flyable,” Pfrommer said
The report went on to state that only about half of the 28th Bomb Wing’s aircraft are even able to lift off of the ground, let alone perform combat missions. The piece detailed some good information on the B-1 fleet and its capabilities, as follows:
“When operating effectively, the B-1 can be one of the most lethal bombers in the U.S. military’s arsenal. Designed as a low-level deep strike penetrator to drop nuclear weapons on the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, the B-1 has evolved into a close-air support bomber. Flying for 10-12 hours at a time high above the battlefield, B-1’s can carry 50,000 pounds of weapons, mostly satellite-guided bombs. “It can put a 2,000-pound weapon on a doorknob from 15 miles away in the dark of night, in the worst weather,” said Col. Gentry Boswell, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth.”
This is what the airmen and aircrews have been suffering. What is very monstrous is the big picture, taken over the past 7 years under Obama: the systematic dismantling and deliberate reduction in combat effectiveness and defense capabilities.
Obama has cashiered the senior Officer and Enlisted Personnel at the Command levels, and the ones with the most combat experience derived from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama has degraded the military’s combat effectiveness by the lowering of standards regarding personnel: assignments are done according to political “correctness” and quota, not by ability. Case in point the appointment of Eric Fanning as the first “openly gay” Secretary of the Army.
Not one day as a soldier, and this is what the Senate confirmed as their Secretary of the Army.
It is all deliberate…the dropping of the TARS system that augmented NORAD, the mothballing of production for the A-10’s and the Tomahawk, and the lackadaisical stance for coastline scrambles when a “foreign partner’s” bomber or submarine ventures into U.S. territory.
It is a deliberate and treasonous weakening of our defenses. Obama is a traitor that has managed (with glacial slowness) to implement his policies and destroy the country. His greatest tool has been the American public, who are too busy trying to wrangle free cell phones and money to care about anything but their own desires. The country is on its deathbed, and Obama has placed it there. While he golfs, vacations, and raises funds, our Air Force is reduced to a scavenger hunt to obtain the parts they require, and our military is understrength and weakening by the day.
There should be NO pensions for Congress or any government employee. Let them do what the rest of us have had to do: provide for our retirement by saving part of our income on a regular basis.
Ten [forbidden] Arabic Words: A challenge to national security professionals engaged in the Global War On Terror
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3432874/posts
America used to be free, secure, and prosperous. Obama promised to “fundamentally transform America”, and he kept his word.
Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in the Face of Jihad by Stephen Caughlin
http://www.amazon.com/Catastrophic-Failure-Blindfolding-America-Jihad/dp/1511617500
Although the Obamas represent the head of the snake, they have many supporters, we know that. If you have read this hate-filled affirmative action president’s book, you know he has been planning his attack for a very long time. No matter where it is, African rule leads to degradation.
I have been beating this drum for a decade: all laws, edicts, regulations, and so-called executive orders should apply to all citizens, no exceptions for any lawyer or politician.
Obama’s traitorous actions are nothing new. Democrat presidents always gut the military so they can buy votes with the money instead. Our enemies know this sorry history and attack us while we are weakened, but real Americans will not be enslaved by the traitors that enable our enemies. There are millions who will fight.
This too shall pass.
Vote to “make America GREAT again!”
Obama and his tens of millions of supporters put us there.
This is why this year’s election is going to be very, very important.
Three front, add mexico.
A country that maintains free and open access across its borders while p!ssing away trillions of dollars in military campaigns all over the globe clearly has no interest in its own national security.
This isn't something Barack Obama brought to Washington. There are probably more big-government globalists on the Republican side of the aisle.
As “leader of the free world”,he sure hasn’t shown any leadership.
Wholeheartedly agree for the fed. jobs (some of which aren’t really jobs, i.e., involve no work).
I worked for the fed. gov. brienfly on an army base during Viet Nam while spouse was in the service. My sister is retired fed. gov. employee, has some perks like travel by train at greatly reduced rate. She took advantage of it to go out west to Washington state...beautiful ride prohibitive to most people (who are not-so-endowed with travel privileges).
I know a guy who knows a guy - shrinking budgets are down to old vests.
Barack Obama is not “the leader of the free world.” He’s a string-puppet who dances to whatever tune the crony capitalist fascists who run this country play for him.
The danger to America is not only Barack Obama, whose evil as head of state rivals that of Caligula, but also a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced and unknown man like him with the Presidency.
It will be easier to limit and undo the evils of an Obama Presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved and functionally illiterate electorate willing to have such a man for their President. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic might just survive a Barack Obama if a president outside the political establishmen . It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their President.
Today’s Obama is the product of a mind that never moved beyond the “Community Organizer” stage and represents the actions of a Manchurian Candidate. Obama now tells us that we must change, we must pander to, appease, perhaps even extend to terrorist organizations all the benefits of what is fast becoming the American Welfare State at taxpayer expense.
Obama is simply leaving a mess for Trump to have to clean up.
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