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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If Democrat John Kerry becomes president he could cut up to a third of the annual $10 billion in spending on missile defenses, but overall defense expenditure would stay high, analysts said this week. Burgeoning budget deficits and the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are expected to limit growth in new weapons spending, regardless of who wins. And the costs of military personnel are expected to keep rising under either a Republican or Democratic president. "I would not expect a big difference, at least initially, if Kerry is elected, as long as the wars in Afghanistan...

ARLINGTON, VA -- Bush-Cheney '04 announced today the release of the campaign's newest television advertisement, "Intel."  The new advertisement highlights John Kerry's proposals to cut intelligence funding and his poor attendance record on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The advertisement will begin airing Monday on national cable and in select local markets.Script for "Intel"President Bush:I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message.Voice Over:John Kerry promises ... Graphic:John Kerry promises ...John Kerry:I will immediately reform the intelligence system.Voice Over:Oh really... As a member of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Kerry was absent for 76 percent of the Committee's hearings.Graphic:John Kerry...ABSENT76% of publicSenate...

[snip]* Military: According to his acceptance speech, Kerry claims that he "will build a stronger military . . . to strengthen American forces that are now overstretched, overextended and under pressure. "We will double our Special Forces to conduct . . . anti-terrorist operations . . . provide our troops with the newest weapons and technology." But as Bush notes, when it came time to actually help troops in a war zone now, where was John Kerry? "Last September, when our troops were in combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq, I proposed supplemental funding to support them in their missions....

Can You Name This Country? 709,000 REGULAR (ACTIVE DUTY) PERSONNEL. 293,000 RESERVE TROOPS. EIGHT STANDING ARMY DIVISIONS. 20 AIR FORCE AND NAVY AIR WINGS WITH 2,000 COMBAT AIRCRAFT. 232 STRATEGIC BOMBERS. 19 STRATEGIC BALLISTIC MISSILE SUBMARINES WITH 3,114 NUCLEAR WARHEADS ON 232 MISSILES. 500 ICBMs WITH 1,950 WARHEADS. FOUR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS AND 121 SURFACE COMBAT SHIPS AND SUBMARINES PLUS ALL THE SUPPORT BASES, SHIPYARDS, AND LOGISTICAL ASSETS NEEDED TO SUSTAIN SUCH A NAVAL FORCE. IS THIS COUNTRY: RUSSIA? NO CHINA? NO GREAT BRITAIN? NO FRANCE? WRONG AGAIN MUST BE USA? STILL WRONG GIVE UP? THESE ARE THE AMERICAN MILITARY FORCES...

Lt. Gov. John F. Kerry, a Democratic candidate for the US Senate, yesterday recommended elimination of at least $54 billion in spending from President Ronald Reagan's proposed $289 billion defense budget for fiscal year 1985. Kerry described his proposed list of cuts as "preliminary" at a press conference at the Parker House and said that he believed the US government could freeze defense spending at current levels without any adverse impact on national security. He recommended cancellation of 27 weapons systems including the B1 bomber, the cruise missile, MX missile, Trident submarine, Patriot air defense missile, F15 fighter plane, Sparrow...

WASHINGTON, May 10 - Even now, 32 months after the Sept. 11 attacks, America's clandestine intelligence service has fewer than 1,100 case officers posted overseas, fewer than the number of F.B.I. agents assigned to the New York City field office alone, government officials say. Since George J. Tenet took charge of the Central Intelligence Agency seven years ago, rebuilding that service has been his top priority. This year, more new case officers will graduate from a year-long course at Camp Peary in Virginia than in any year since the Vietnam War. They are the products of aggressive new recruiting aimed...

According to the funhouse logic of the Kerry campaign, I have no choice but to question Kerry's patriotism. As Mort Kondracke of Roll Call has been dutifully chronicling, ever since Kerry became the unofficial nominee, Kerry has claimed that criticism of his record equals criticism of his patriotism. In February, when Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, listed the number of defense programs Kerry opposed - the MX missile, the B-1 bomber, the Tomahawk missile, the Apache helicopter, the Patriot missile, the Harrier jet and the F-15 fighter aircraft -Kerry's campaign manager immediately replied, "Today, RNC chair...

"We are continuing a defense buildup that is consuming our resources with weapons systems that we don't need and can't use." — John Kerry in 1984 on the Reagan defense build-up. What are some of these weapons systems that John Kerry said "we don't need and can't use?" The list might surprise you. It includes many of the most important weapons in our arsenal and weapons that have performed brilliantly in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Among the systems John Kerry said he wanted to cancel were the B-1 bomber, the Apache helicopter, the Patriot anti-missile system, the Aegis...

here's a list of weapons systems Kerry has opposed over the years: the B-1 bomber, the B-2, the F-15, the F-14A, the F-14D, the AH-64 Apache helicopter, the AV-8B Harrier jet, the Patriot missile, the Aegis air-defense cruiser, the Trident missile Kerry sought to reduce procurement of the following: the M1 Abrams tank,the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Tomahawk cruise missile, the F-16 jet

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - When John Kerry (news - web sites) offered a surprise plan to trim $43 billion in spending a decade ago, he encountered some harsh resistance: The cuts would threaten national security. U.S. fighter pilots would be endangered. And the battle against terrorism would be hampered, opponents charged. And that's just what Kerry's fellow Democrats had to say. "We are putting blindfolds over our pilots' eyes," Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, a decorated World War II veteran, said of the impact of Kerry's proposed intelligence cuts. Senators rejected Kerry's plan on a vote...

On Special Report tonight they ran a clip of Kerry saying that he didn't vote for the final version because it didn't buy troops body armor, and some other things I don't remember, but he'd voted for another version of the $87B bill. Carl Cameron explained that the other version was to be supported by new taxes on 'the rich.' My question, especially for those who have time and/or expertise to look up the answer is: Was the other version essentially the same as the final version except for the funding? It would seem to be significant if Kerry voted...

<p>President Bush, trying to counter John Kerry's record as a decorated Vietnam War veteran, argues in a new campaign ad that his Democratic rival has turned his back on U.S. soldiers engaged in war.</p> <p>"Though John Kerry voted in October of 2002 for military action in Iraq, he later voted against funding our soldiers," the Bush-Cheney campaign ad says.</p>

<p>If John Kerry had prevailed in his calls for cuts in specific defense programs 20 years ago, AH-64 Apache helicopters, made in Mesa and seen as vital in two wars, would not have been built, U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth charged Friday.</p>

Please disseminate! http://paradigmassociates.org/TheTruthAboutKerry.html

Likely Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry slammed President Bush over the weekend for not supplying U.S. troops in Iraq with enough body armor to protect them from attacks. But it turns out, Sen. Kerry actually voted against supplying the troops with more body armor in 2002. Addressing a Texas audience on Saturday, the Massachusetts Democrat said it was "shocking" that "tens of thousands of other troops arrived in Iraq to find that -- with danger around every corner - there wasn't enough body armor." But Bush campaign press secretary Scott Stanzel told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg on Sunday that Kerry...

http://www.pabaah.com/Kerry.html

any one have a quick link to the PDF of the Kerry letter on his defense votes?

Why is John Kerry so defensive about his national security record? HERE'S A DOG that won't hunt: John Kerry's accusation that President Bush's reelection campaign is questioning his patriotism. This elevates a Democratic refrain--if we disagree with Bush on national security, we're called unpatriotic--to a ridiculous new height. In Kerry's case, his record on defense, intelligence, and foreign policy has been criticized by Republican national chairman Ed Gillespie and Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. Theirs were conventional attacks by supporters of one candidate on an opponent's record. Neither got much media attention, but the response by Kerry was indeed newsworthy....

The Army shoots down its helicopter. IT'S AN AXIOM IN WASHINGTON that government programs never die, and they don't fade away either. Instead, they invent new rationales to perpetuate their existence ad infinitum. So it was rather stunning when, last Monday, the Army announced the cancellation of its prized $39 billion Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter program. Credit the dramatic about-face to the Army's new chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker. The former head of the U.S. Special Operations Command was brought out of retirement last August by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to shake up an Army many observers think...