Posted on 04/11/2003 3:22:22 PM PDT by Stultis
Left Claims Clinton Helped Military
There are times that spin masters on the left get their facts so twisted that they end up looking like fools. It has been suggested by several spinners in Democrat Party ranks that it is "Bill Clinton's military" that is currently winning the war in Iraq.
The facts show that Bill Clinton halted military development, wasted critical weapons and allowed our forces to become dangerously weak.
No major weapon system was ever introduced during the Clinton years. In fact, many weapons systems were delayed or denied adequate funding.
No Patriot Here
For example, the Patriot missile was not improved during the Clinton years. The repeated pleas of U.S. military leaders that we needed some means to protect ourselves from the ballistic missile threat fell on deaf ears inside the Clinton White House.
Proposed upgrades to the Patriot were not tested, delayed or canceled by the Clinton administration in its feverish attempt to salvage the obsolete ABM treaty with the former Soviet Union. American national security came second to the wishes of Moscow.
The facts show that the Clinton administration traded and sold advanced U.S. military missile technology to China while denying funding to U.S. anti-missile systems that can counter the ballistic missile threat.
George Bush canceled the ABM treaty and immediately funded the Patriot PAC III program. However, events in the Middle East outpaced the frantic effort to ready the Patriot for war.
The war in Iraq forced the Bush administration to put Patriot PAC III into service without a formal testing regime. The PAC III has performed its job, protecting Kuwait and our troops from over a dozen Iraqi ballistic missiles.
Yet two Coalition aircraft have also been downed by the untested Patriot, an RAF Tornado and a U.S. Navy F-18 Hornet. Clearly, if the Clinton administration had allowed Patriot to be tested, the friendly fire incidents could have been avoided.
Clinton Missed the Target
The Clinton administration frequently misused, micromanaged and wasted advanced military weapon systems. Critics of the Clinton administration often cite the failed Tomahawk cruise missile strikes at a Sudanese aspirin factory and poorly targeted missile strikes at empty caves in Afghanistan.
USAF officials confirmed that the President Clinton had a history of bungling missile strikes, in particular targeting the Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) by micromanagement from the Oval Office.
One specific example cited was the unsuccessful 1996 Desert Strike operation where USAF ALCMs with fragmentary warheads were incorrectly targeted on hardened Iraq bunkers on White House orders.
The White House bypassed the USAF Air Combat Command (ACC) and directly ordered B-52s to fire the ALCMs at a hardened Iraqi air defense command bunker. The frag warheads exploded harmlessly outside the Iraq bunker, causing no damage.
The Iraq bunker was destroyed later by a second, follow-on, strike of Navy Tomahawk missiles with conventional blast explosive warheads.
Bomb-Happy Clinton
President Clinton was frequently criticized in Congress and the Pentagon for being "bomb happy. " Clinton's policy of bombing with high-tech weapons rapidly used up critical U.S. military inventories. The shortages, according to DOD officials, were a direct result of Clinton's Defense budget shortfalls for the hard-pressed U.S. military.
According to Defense planners, the most critical shortfall was in Air Launched Cruise Missiles. In late 1998, Boeing was contracted by the USAF to convert the final remaining 130 nuclear-tipped AGM-86B missiles into conventional "Bunker Buster" ALCMs with 2,000-pound warheads.
The U.S. used about 330 Tomahawk cruise missiles and 90 ALCMs during Desert Fox strikes – now known as the "Monica Storm" campaign. All the USAF-launched ALCMs were Block 1 types equipped with heavy conventional warheads for bunker busting. In addition, 230 laser-guided bombs were used and about 250 dumb "iron" Mk. 82 bombs.
According to recon results of Desert Fox, the cruise missile and laser bomb attacks left most of Iraqi air defenses intact.
Era of Delay and Decay
The Clinton administration proposed that the B-1 bomber be retired early. The very same B-1 that recently dropped four 2,000-pound bombs on a bunker where Saddam may have been having dinner.
The Clinton administration delayed the Global Hawk, the Predator, the GPS-guided bomb systems and the Long Bow Apache, and wanted to trim the number of aircraft carriers down to eight.
Many of the weapons that the U.S. should be fielding now are still in development because of Clinton delays and under-funding.
The Clinton administration delayed the V-22 Osprey, F-22 Raptor, the Joint Strike Fighter and the Comanche attack helicopter. In addition, the U.S. military is still trying to make up critical shortages in the Milstar space communications program.
The Air Force, Navy and Marines are also scrambling to make up critical shortages in air-refueling tankers, frequently cut out of the Clinton budget requests.
During the Clinton years, the U.S. military had to cut valuable training, live-fire exercises and flight hours in order to meet demanding deployment funding spent in Haiti and Kosovo.
In fact, the U.S. Air Force had to turn to the United Arab Emirates in order to upgrade the F-16 Fighting Falcon. The UAE agreed to purchase advanced versions of the F-16 that the USAF could not afford. The UAE export funded further development of the F-16, which eventually made its way into the U.S. Air Force inventory.
Bill Clinton never helped the U.S. military and often hurt American national security. It is an outright lie to claim that Bill Clinton has any responsibility for the current success in the desert of Iraq.
Maybe he was referring to China?
Just laugh.But I think it's important to raise up facts like this. I'm thinking of the set of voters who will too easily be persuaded to vote for someone other than GW next election. Those who can be reached with reason can help us ensure that GW's war on terror rolls on unabated.
There's a lot at stake now, and facts will help us reach the undecided.
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