TO: Terry S
RE: On the One Hand
By the Numbers….
1. Defense spending is going up 4% next year, it is not being slashed. — Terry S
You seem to think that 4% increase in the budget, plotted out in the previous Fiscal Year [Note: I used to do the Command Operating Budget Estimate (COBE) for Fort Carson], is ‘significant’.
4%???!?!? Gee. That’s almost the usual rate of inflation under normal fiscal circumstances. And you think this is ‘significant’? Where did you study ‘sadistics’ anyway? Only things of 10% or OVER are considered statistically ‘significant’.
And the Raptor program is to be CUT from that budget. How much of that budget is going to the Raptor program and how will that money be re-allocated? I haven’t seen those plans yet. [Note: I used to pull money from places in the Fort Carson budget and stuff them into other places too. So I know a bit about how the process works.]
2. The budget is moving away from cool expensive technology to effect cheap technology which can be used to fight irregular or guerrilla wars. (The Raptor is an awesome plane, but I don’t think it is the most effect weapon against Haji and his IED.) — Terry S
The reason we’re so powerful is because we have weapon systems that outperform all of our possible opponents.
That includes the Raptor.
Obviously you are ignorant of that famous axiom rooted in the fact that…
Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from ‘magic’. —
Case in point, during Viet Nam—you ARE old enough to remember Viet Nam—the C47 equipped with the 20mm rotary-barrel gun system was considered ‘magic’ by the Viet Cong. It was affectionately referred to by our troops as “Puff the Magic Dragon”. Why? Because the Viet Cong thought it WAS a fire-breathing dragon.
You keep the technological edge on ALL your enemies. Either that or you are defeated on the modern battlefield: Land, Sea OR Air.
Maybe you and I should play a game of Civilization IV. You keep your bows and arrows and when I show up on your borders with an army of heavy mechanized infantry and modern, composite armor tanks, we’ll see who perseveres.
Or, if you doubt that, take a lesson from the Polish Lancers who bravely charged the Nazi Panzers….breaking their lances on the armor plate of the tanks and being slaughtered.
3. Gates is a smart guy with recent combat leadership experience. He’s not gutting America’s defenses. He’s making use more effective based on his experience…it’s called intelligence. — Terry S
I never said he wasn’t. But he IS a politician and one who knows how to say, “Yes sir. Yes sir. Three bags full,” when his boss, The One, tells him to do something.
There probably are some programs that could be cut. But I don’t think the Raptor is one of them.
RE: On the Other Hand
P.S. – You’re both dangerous…. — Terry S
Thanks for the compliment. I AM ‘dangerous’. You, or probably your parents, paid good money to make me such. And I appreciate all the training and experiences I had in 27 years in the infantry.
RE: On the Third Hand
….and a fool. — Terry S
Based on your args here, I suspect you’re projecting. But that’s typical of a number of people who say that to me.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. -- Benjamin Franklin]
P.S. And what have YOU done for US that makes you such a subject matter expert on this matter?
