Cutting Defense Spending, a Shell Game Masquerading as Something Substantial

[unhappycamper]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Cutting-Defense-Spending--by-Dave-Lefcourt-Defense-Cuts_Obama_Pentagon_Spending-Priorities-140225-612.html



Cutting Defense Spending, a Shell Game Masquerading as Something Substantial
By Dave Lefcourt
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/25/2014 at 12:39:57

~snip~

As expected the proposed cuts drew criticism from the usual suspects with Republican Senator Marco Rubio commenting, "Reducing the size of the Army to its lowest levels in seventy years does not accurately reflect the current security environment. Cutting key Air Force and Naval capabilities just as we are trying to increase our presence in the Pacific does not make strategic sense". Thank you Marco for your not so keen insights. Will someone inform this fool the cold war ended in 1991 and fabricating a new one with China is sheer lunacy.

But back to the proposed cuts; if one looks closely at them as well as what is to be expanded, it's really a shell game masquerading as something substantial in cutting defense spending.

To begin with cutting the Navy's fleet of 22 cruisers is offset with the building of 32, new generation, "Littoral Combat" ships. The original plan called for building 52 of these ships but you don't have to be a mathematical genius to recognize that's a plus 10 ships on the high seas.

Then there's the mothballing of the A-10 "Warthog" fleet offset by fully retaining the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter force just coming on line, the most costly program in Pentagon history. Hmm, replace one type fighter jet with a more expensive one. Don't ask for logic, just read on.