Posted on 02/15/2013 5:04:04 PM PST by neverdem
The looming budget sequestration imposes almost $50 billion in cuts on the Defense budget this year. It’s a terrible idea — and I’m for it.
This hatchet job trims not just fat, but muscle and bone, too. It’s going to be ugly. But as I’ve watched the Defense Department pull shameful stunts and listened to congressional blather attempting to block sequestration, this defense hawk has become one irate taxpayer.
The last straw came earlier this month when our Navy ostentatiously cancelled the deployment of the supercarrier USS Harry S Truman to the Persian Gulf, crying poverty. That’s like Donald Trump claiming he can’t afford a cab.
The Navy could have cut back other, less-sensitive deployments or acquisition programs. But the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chose to embarrass the White House and pressure Congress. He should have been fired.
Did the admiral even think of the message he sent to Iran?
Dear admirals and generals: It’s your job to protect our country, not just your budgets.
As for Congress, its members agreed to this sequestration. The terms weren’t secret. Now panicked members act as if they’ve been innocent dupes.
Won’t wash. You voted for it. Now suck up the consequences.
To get a sense of the scare tactics rampant on the Hill, consider “What Sequestration Really Means,” from the House Armed Services Committee. It has all the integrity of a drunken teenager in a backseat with a cheerleader.
The paper makes four bogus claims about what “reductions at this level would mean”:
The smallest ground force since before World War II. We’re going to have that anyway, because our troops’ real friends on the Hill would fit in an aircraft lavatory. Congressmen love photo ops with soldiers, but when it comes budget time they’ll always sacrifice grunts to...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
“BTW, it was a Navy Aviator friend of mine who first put this bug in my ear regarding Air Force stealth planes.”
Says enough right there. Of course, the Navy decided to stay out of the stealth business, and now too late it realizes it could not survive against a stealth-based air-to-air enemy with its grape-like F-18s.
Your experience is noble and brave. When you have 33+ years give me a call.
CAS is not the arena for stealth. If you want airpower to be A-10s and Army helicopters, go right ahead. But the spectrum of warfare is not just bringing in cover for the guys outside the wire and in the firefight.
It means keeping the skies clear of the other guy’s airpower so those Warthogs and choppers can work unimpeded over your head.
It means the ability to bust down the other guy’s doors so you can bring in all those tanks and mechanized infantry to fight your part of the war without seeing night vision Youtubes of YOUR buddies getting blasted out of their truckstops.
It means strategic offensive actions deep in a peer power’s territory, whose occupants deploy more sophisticated technology than you have seen in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Even at 25+ your time horizon has never included what engaging a peer enemy is all about. The Russians are not gone, just sleeping. The Chinese are waking up, and they have the industry they stole from us to be the next arsenal of (their) democracy, not ours.
If you want to address technical issues, get back with me when you know what an F-pole is, and then we can talk.
And stay away from the Navy guys. They have more important problems now than worrying about stealth aircraft in the other services.
“BTW, it was a Navy Aviator friend of mine who first put this bug in my ear regarding Air Force stealth planes.”
Says enough right there. Of course, the Navy decided to stay out of the stealth business, and now too late it realizes it could not survive against a stealth-based air-to-air enemy with its grape-like F-18s.
Your experience is noble and brave. When you have 33+ years give me a call.
CAS is not the arena for stealth. If you want airpower to be A-10s and Army helicopters, go right ahead. But the spectrum of warfare is not just bringing in cover for the guys outside the wire and in the firefight.
It means keeping the skies clear of the other guy’s airpower so those Warthogs and choppers can work unimpeded over your head.
It means the ability to bust down the other guy’s doors so you can bring in all those tanks and mechanized infantry to fight your part of the war without seeing night vision Youtubes of YOUR buddies getting blasted out of their truckstops.
It means strategic offensive actions deep in a peer power’s territory, whose occupants deploy more sophisticated technology than you have seen in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Even at 25+ your time horizon has never included what engaging a peer enemy is all about. The Russians are not gone, just sleeping. The Chinese are waking up, and they have the industry they stole from us to be the next arsenal of (their) democracy, not ours.
If you want to address technical issues, get back with me when you know what an F-pole is, and then we can talk.
And stay away from the Navy guys. They have more important problems now than worrying about stealth aircraft in the other services.
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