This year has been refreshingly different. President Obama and his defense secretary, Robert Gates, have made a compelling case for ending weapons programs that significantly exceed their budgets or use limited tax dollars to buy more capability than the nation needs. And Congress has agreed — somewhat.
The $680 billion defense authorization bill signed into law by President Obama last week pares back or cancels billions of dollars in expensive weapons systems that are either anachronistic, redundant, poorly performing or exceed the military’s real requirements.
Why are we concentrating on any of these weapons systems when our new war is against people who use improvised explosive devices, mortars and small arms?
The military anti-air and Tank elements in these circumstances are useless in Iraq as it stands, yet we want more missile systems when we already have systems in place that meet the current requirements?
Great judgment call for Obama. I do not always agree with him but this was a smart move.
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I agree. Too many pet projects of Congressmen went on for far too long. If our military says they don't need it, then why buy it?
I like Gates more and more. He seems like a real stand up pragmatic guy. Definitely a breath of fresh air after Rumsfeld. Really glad Obama kept him on.
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I agree. Too many pet projects of Congressmen went on for far too long. If our military says they don't need it, then why buy it?
I like Gates more and more. He seems like a real stand up pragmatic guy. Definitely a breath of fresh air after Rumsfeld. Really glad Obama kept him on.
Makes you wonder why Bush picked him.
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As far as why Bush picked him, more and more I've recently seen indications that Bush was pulling away from the Cheney influence at the end. perhaps had he done so earlier, we might have had the President that people thought they were voting for.
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If the defense budget is so great than why is there not enough troops in Afphganstan? We are fighting for nothing right now-because Obama won't send them more troops. Take the money they have cut back on and use it for this then.
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If the defense budget is so great than why is there not enough troops in Afphganstan? We are fighting for nothing right now-because Obama won't send them more troops. Take the money they have cut back on and use it for this then.
Because paying a defense contractor to develop the latest and greatest fighter jet is patently useless in a country like Afghanistan. No matter how many of these latest and greatest jets we have, it still won't help us out in Afghanistan. The thing we need to succeed in Afghanistan is young men who are willing to get their heads blown off, and they're in somewhat finite supply (though the recession has helped).
Every country who's tried to occupy Afghanistan has failed. They keep at it for awhile, but the insurgencies and the problems they're trying to resolve fester indefinitely. I have a hunch we're going to be there indefinitely too, making sure that groups like Al Qaeda can never get too established there... but I'm not certain what our hopes on nation-building are.
My checks keep comin and my VA doc seems happy. But Obama is gonna change all that I need to go down to Mexico already to get some medical things done cheap. Im thinkin on movin on down there to San Felipe anyway cause I like fishin anyway
Government cannot waste tax dollars on military seeing as DEFENSE is only one of three actual responsibilities of the government.
Leftist nonsense.
LOL. Are you saying there's no government waste in the defense industries? Now that's funny! I've got a $3,000 toilet seat lid you might be interested in.
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If the defense budget is so great than why is there not enough troops in Afphganstan? We are fighting for nothing right now-because Obama won't send them more troops. Take the money they have cut back on and use it for this then.
Because a certain predecessor to Obama decided to invade Iraq in response to an attack by insurgents based out of Afghanistan? And now we're invested in Iraq in the classic, "you broke it, you bought it" sense.
I'm glad Bush wasn't in office in 1941, or we'd have bombed India after Pearl Harbor. Afghanistan is a lost cause. When we had bin Laden and company holed up in a cave complex there we should have just dropped a tactical nuke and been done with it.
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