Free Republic

President Barack Obama laid claim to a peace dividend that doesn't exist when he told the nation he wants to use money saved by ending wars to build highways, schools and bridges. The wars were largely financed by borrowing, so there is no ready pile of cash to be diverted to anything else. The claim was one of several by Obama in his acceptance speech Thursday at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., and by Vice President Joe Biden in earlier remarks that did not match the facts. A look at some of their assertions: OBAMA: "I'll use the...

When the Berlin Wall collapsed and it appeared that the Soviet Union was going to break apart completely, President Clinton declared a peace dividend. Following that "declaration" of the peace dividend, our nation saw a significant reduction in the size of our military and in the size of the Special Forces, and a virtual dismantling of the human intelligence network within the intelligence community. The impact of the peace dividend was felt on September 11, 2001, when our nation was savagely attacked by an enemy whom we misjudged and overlooked because we were woefully unprepared to detect the attack before...

I'm here to blow a hole in the myth that Clinton created an amazing budget surplus that Bush squandered and turned into a huge deficit. The above chart shows the deficit/surplus since 1980, pay no attention to Obama's first year. I've talked enough about his budget deficit recently. The following is a chart of the Nasdaq from 1990 until now: Read more at floppingaces.net...

The U.S. Navy is facing a temporary SSN (nuclear attack submarine) shortage, and there is no solution that will not involve some pain. The problem is that new Virginia class subs cannot be built quickly enough to replace all the Cold War era Los Angeles class boats that have to retire. Even that will be delayed, at least for 16 Los Angeles class subs, that will get enough refurb to keep them at sea for up to two more years. Meanwhile, many of the shipyards used to build all those Los Angeles class boats, were discarded as part of the...

Rebuilding Military Requires Sacrifices But Can Be Done, Experts Say By Monisha Bansal CNSNews.com Staff Writer June 27, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - Asserting that the U.S. military is "stretched thin," policy experts debated Tuesday whether the country can afford to rebuild the military to necessary levels and how it should be done. "We should spend whatever it takes to make sure we're secure, but by doing it in a very candid way," Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, said at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. "Funding the military in the next decade is going to be very...

WASHINGTON — Washington Sen. Patty Murray questioned a top general Wednesday on whether National Guard units are adequately prepared to fight the war in Iraq. Murray, a Democrat and senior member of the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee, visited a National Guard base near Tacoma on Monday. She said the "stress and anger" among Guard and Army Reserve members "was at an all-time high." Guard members are concerned about a lack of equipment and frustrated at the short notice they receive before being called to active duty, Murray said. In many cases they are simply not prepared — mentally or physically...

U.S. Air Force pilots are flying planes so old that some were built during the Eisenhower administration, and still Congress is delaying new appropriations to modernize America's aging fighters, bombers and other military aircraft. The average age of today's Air Force fleet is 24 years. Big B-52 bombers, which played a critical role in America's recent efforts to liberate Iraq and stabilize Afghanistan, are over 45 years old. Worse, many of these bombers rely on KC-135 aerial refueling tankers that are equally as old. Add to the mix, the U.S. military critically depends on C-130 cargo planes for rapid deployment....

WASHINGTON - In a new sign of mounting strain from the war in Iraq, the Army has extended the combat tours of about 4,000 soldiers who would otherwise be returning home, defense officials said Monday. The 1st Brigade of 1st Armored Division, which is operating in the vicinity of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, will be kept in place for several weeks beyond its scheduled departure, the officials said. The officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been formally announced by the Pentagon. The brigade's home base is in Germany. The soldiers' families were...

Peacetime Budgets in Wartime: The Coming Decline of the U.S. Military By William R. Hawkins Friday, March 14, 2003 At the February 26 House Armed Services Committee hearing on the FY 2004 Defense budget, chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) questioned the wisdom of further reducing America's military strength as forces mass for war in Iraq.  He noted that the proposed integration of Navy and Marine tactical aircraft squadrons would mean a cut of 497 fighter aircraft, ten percent of the force, and the disbanding of five squadrons. The planes taken out of service will be the oldest, but production of  F/A-18E/F Super Hornets,...

Memo on the MarginAugust 2, 2000Dick Cheney, Peace DividendMemo To: Political & Financial Writers From: Jude Wanniski Re: A Jack of All Trades My father was a jack of all trades, master of none. He could do everything passably, nothing to perfection. I could tell countless stories about him, but my favorite was when he discovered in 1950 that it would cost him $4 to have a TV repairman fix the set we had bought just six months earlier. He cut out an ad from a Superman comic book offering a book for $2 or so on how to fix...

Bush critics have a question about his conduct in the war on terrorism almost as pressing as the ubiquitous "Where are the WMDs in Iraq?" It is "Where are the tax increases here at home?" Tim Russert announced in his Meet the Press interview with President Bush — in a disapproving why-can't-you-get-with-the-program tone — "Every president since the Civil War who has gone to war has raised taxes, not cut them." As former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta writes, capturing the critique perfectly, "While our fighting men and women are making the greatest sacrifice of all on the battlefields...