[Willie Green]

Wasn't Rumsfeld the one who originally planned these cutbacks?

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

I think you are mistaken. He called for the continuation of decomm's. The budget for building new state of the art United States Ships is far better nowadays. (Especially since Clinton) All's Clinton did was create the TERA program (early outs) that are no longer. (Believe me the Navy lost alot of good old schoolers) And "Don't Ask Don't Tell" fiasco.

[Poohbah]

Nope. This all happened on Clinton's watch.

However, the Forrestal and Kitty Hawk-class carriers are tremendously expensive relative to nuclear-powered carriers--fuel oil O&M costs are about 3-4 times as much as the same costs for new nuclear cores across the lifespan of the ship. O&M cost reductions were the biggest reason the Navy decommissioned these ships.

[ErnBatavia]

Willie...are you Scott Ritter? Or Alan Colmes? Or a hacker? You've really been on the "erratic" side of things the past few days.

[El Gato]

Wasn't Rumsfeld the one who originally planned these cutbacks?

Nor did Cheney when he was SecDef. Cheney and Bush I did plan some cutbacks, but nothing like we actually got under the StainMan.