As I continue my (valiant or futile?) effort to catch up on my reading, I read with interest a recent news item that Donald Rumsfeld (the charming and infallible Secretary of Defence under our even more infallible President) is at odds with the top brass of the Air Force.
Apparently, the Air Force top brass - who have spent their lives working in and running the air force - are not the ones whose opinion counts on what kind of weapon systems we should be getting.
Given an expected "reduction" in military spending (when, in fact, our total bill on military operations, thanks for wars we chose to start, is increasing) the air force leaders want to get a lot of the Raptor aircraft that are incredible fighting machines. They have even shown a willingness to take a reduction in the number of JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) planes they will get, as long as they can get something like 500 Raptors.
However, Rumsfeld (whose brilliant military planning we are all witnessing on live TV in Iraq every night, and whose clear thinking was exposed when he blurted out that the fourth hijacked plane had been shot down in Pennsylvania) wants to kill off the Raptors and get more of the JSF.
What I find bothersome and distrubing is the logic behind this great man's thinking. The Raptor is more suited for air combat against a great adversary - so, I guess we do not expect China, or Russia, or others, to ever miltarily be a threat to us (or our allies). The JSF is more suited for supporting roles in ground attacks.....
Maybe I am wrong, but, that sounds disturbingly like a plan for us to ignore the resurgence of big military powers like China and Russia one day, while we focus on starting more wars with countries where we can simply go in and bomb our way to the targets Haliburton gives us.
In My Humble Opinion, both approaches are wrong and dangerous.
What do YOU think?
Imran Anwar.
http://www.imran.TV
2 comments:
I think your a bit sarcastic. It's true China might someday be a problem, but we have a war to fight today, a war that has not gone exactly as planned, but was necessary. Read some of the documents we've captured in Iraq and Afghanistan to see enough links between Sadaam and terrors groups, inlcuding good old Osama, to justify the move. And in the end, hopefully, the Iraqis will have a decent country to live in.
Sorry, Doug, no documents were found linking Bin Laden to Saddam. Bin Laden, scum as he is, was better than Bush Sr. and Rumsfeld who were funding, arming and hugging Saddam. Shame on them.
Imran
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