Will Congress Put Useless Fighter Jets Above America?
Let me get this straight. The latest polls say three-quarters of the American people want a public option in health care, yet it's in question. But, Congress is about to throw $369 million (on a down-payment of $2 billion) for a dozen F-22 fighter jets that even the Pentagon doesn't want. Oh, and the money for it? It's coming out of funds that were set aside to clean up dangerous nuclear waste in the U.S.
Only in Washington.
For those not familiar with the F-22 and why it's a waste, let me explain. It's one of the most - if not the most advanced air-to-air fighters in the world.... To fight the Soviet Union's next generation fighters. That's right, that's why it was developed. The fighter has limited air-to-ground capabilities, which renders it pretty much useless in the wars we're fighting right now, and might be fighting well into the future. President Obama and Secretary Gates have rightly decided to shift our procurement to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, which we could actually use, because of its air-to-ground and stealth capabilities.
Nevertheless, to play it safe, we've got 187 of the obsolete F-22s on-hand or in the pipeline already, just in case the Soviet Union ever comes through with their next-generation fighters. Secretary Gates asked for only four more, to complete what the Pentagon said it could use. After that, the military doesn't want any more of them. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz have publicly withdrawn support for it saying, "The time has come to move on."
Apparently not those looking out for defense contractors, though.
And so, Congress is about to use the Defense Authorization Bill to pay for fighters we don't need from Lockheed-Martin, while taking money from cleaning up nuclear waste. Six decades of U.S. nuclear weapons research, testing, and production activities have left dozens of Department of Energy sites contaminated by radioactive and hazardous waste. The contamination threatens workers, communities, and the environment, including major water supplies.
Now, other veterans and I aren't for cutting the Pentagon budget in a way that would hurt our troops in the field, or hurt our ability to defend America now or in the future. But, our money is best spent on equipment that is so desperately needed in Iraq and Afghanistan - items like the Stryker armored vehicle, which the troops and veterans of VoteVets.org have almost unanimously raved about, for its ability to maneuver while protecting them from IEDs. That helps us a lot more than planes sitting idle somewhere.
So, a warning. To any in Congress who vote to keep this money for the F-22 in, don't try to present it as a pro-military vote. The military doesn't want it. Troops can't use it. Most veterans would say they're not for it. And none of us are for letting dangerous nuclear waste continue to seep into our land and water. So don't try to tie this pork to troops and veterans.
In fact, those who really care about the military, troops, veterans, and America will vote to strip the money for the F-22 out. We'll be watching.
Crossposted at VetVoice.com
Follow Jon Soltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonsoltz
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I don't think we need either plane. Let's just stop going to war.
We cannot afford to be a warmongering nation anymore. We need better healthcare, and should I mention our roads??? Our air traffic control system??? Our screwed up financial system???
WAKE UP AMERICA
Tell Congress we do not want to be the world's policeman anymore. Does Bermuda want to police the world?? The Bahamas or Mexico or Canada ( practically the only country besides Great Britain that does try to assist us in Iraq and Afghanistan )? No they don't.
WTF is wrong with Congress???
The F-22 is not worthless or useless. It is much better than the F-35. All the F-35 has over the F-22 is that it can carry 2 2,000lb bombs internally vs. 2 1,000lb bombs. The F-22 is faster, stealthier, more maneuverable and can carry more internal air-to-air ordinance, even when equipped for air to ground. The F-22 isn't even twice as expensive either. What is up with the liberals who want to spend a quarter trillion dollars on stealth bomb trucks? I thought they were against beating up on weak countries like Iraq - because that's the only good reason to buy so many F-35 and so little F-22. If you buy a solid lot of F-22s, I'll believe that its for air superiority and to fight against real powers if we should be so unfortunate to have to do so. Thousands of F-35s aren't good for much other than bombing the bejeezus out of small and medium powers.
Hey Washington! Forget the worthless F-22 and buy the F-35 instead, dammit.
Perhaps the air force or congress could pay for Revell or Monogram to make plastic model kits of this aeronautical marvel and distribute them to the almost 20% of Americans without health care.
The untreated sickly could thus enjoy their declining health gluing the planes together and from their bed admire the gleaming model of their noble sacrifice for the well being of corporate America.
Or how about this: We fix the health care system entirely rather than relying on corporate middlemen to skim 30% of the money out of it via 'administrative' costs.
Or maybe pay down the national debt so that we're not spending hundreds of millions on just interest payments.... or stopping people from passing every stupid bond measure they can think of without ever thinking about the fiscal impact in the future.
It might make sense to streamline the military, but that should be done rationally NOT as a result of people finall waking up on other issues that have been building up for years but because there might be a better way to do things.
Corporate Welfare at its finest.
Only special interests get their way in Congress
Follow the Money
If we absolutely, positively, gotta have-it now, must fund Obamacare with something, let's take it from ACORN before taking it from defense. We have WAY too many countries wanting to do us harm.
Good grief will you get a life, and preferably an education??! ACORN is a non-profit group. We don't need to spend another dime on "defense", and we already owe the Chinese BILLIONS for Bush's two never-ending wars. Ever wonder WHY so many countries hate us? Of course not, that would take becoming educated and hearing things you don't want to hear.
Besides- ACORN makes me feel so safe. And President Obama's new policy of apologizing and meekness seems to work so well with N. Korea and Iran. You're right, defense spending is foolish. What we need is to organize some more Communities.
Wasteful defense spending weakens America. A diminishing pool of healthy individuals fir for military service is a threat to any nation's ability to defend itself. That's been known since ancient times.
Yeah, because ACORN is getting SOOOOOOOO much government money, and the F-22 is SOOOOOOOO useful!!! Please turn on your brain before you post again!!
Congress does what Congress wants.
Makes no difference about what's right for the country or the citizens. Whatever the lobbyists say is how it goes.
I still say we need to get rid of all the lobbyists and let these people start reading their mounds of emails to know what the country really thinks.
I'd like to make a couple of points. The F-22 exists today. It works and while it has not been in combat the plane is expected to kill about 10 other aircraft for every loss we suffer. It takes years if not decades to get an advanced fighter into the sky. When we are fighting a war or just an air battle off of some coast it is too late to start producing a successful fighter.
The F-35 is supposed to be a very good plane. It's supposed to do it all, fighter, ground support, stealth missions and more. How many vehicles do you know that do it all and do it well? There are many vehicles that do it all and do it half ass at everything. I expect many shortcomings in the F-35.
Our military needs to be ready for both current and future threats. The author and many on this column seem to believe every war will be exactly like those fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is unlikely. As our aircraft stay in service for decades it is unreasonable to base the design on something fit to fight raggedy ass terrorists hiding in caves.
The problem with the aircraft's supposed "potential" is the fact that reports released by the Air Force in relation to alleged mock engagements between F-22's and other aircraft types have been uniformly sugar-coated, but woefully inconsistent.
About 6 years ago, a newspaper article quoted an F-16 pilot of an "Agressor" squadron purporting a 10-1 loss:kill ratio in mock battles between his squadron and a unit of F-22's. Shortly thereafter the F-22's kill ratio had almost quadroupled, culminating in most recent reports in which F-22's were alleged to have "dispatched" more than 200 alternate Air Force fighter types for no loss. Less than two weeks before Gates' decision to forego any further production orders for the fighter, the Air Force touted the aircraft's stealth capabilities as "greater than expected".
Amazing how the aircraft's potential just seems to increase in direct proportion to the growing realization that the Air Force may not be getting the exact number of fighters it had originally hoped for.
Besides, even if the USAF is reporting actual "figures", it's important to note that many such combats have been instigated under mitigating circumstances which play directly into the assets of the type being evaluated. Such stunts have been utilized to inflate the potential of such aircraft as the F-14, which established an ostensibly impressive kill ratio in mock engagements in which the Navy aircrews were permitted to "down" their adversaries strictly through use of the AWG-9 fire control system.
A few years ago our military got it's asses kicked in war games with India. In these mock air battles the Indians destroyed the most planes.
We got our asses handed to us by India.
I think we need a replacement for the F-15 and F-16 today. Period.
If you have an accurate account of the combat effectiveness of the F-22 then provide a link.
Here's one link about the war games
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p01s04-wosc.html
Yeah, and do you know WHY the F-22 hasn't seen combat??? Because every time that it's gone into a non-controlled environment (such as over the skies of Iraq, which it HAS done) we've found that its much vaunted capabilities FAIL it! For example, the RADAR system is so sensitive that it's been jammed, while at cruising altitude, by GARAGE DOOR OPENERS!!!!
Canadians get health care, we get fighter jets.
Bombers can at least bomb. Fighter jets can only fly around looking for a fight, polluting the sky and costing billions. Still, what's good for the defence industry is good for America--NOT!
Get me to Canada!
But you can't show off your health care system like you can a shiny new jet. See here in America we have priorities. I'm not sure just what they are, but we have them!!
think of it as election money being spent by those who think only of keeping their posts in the legislature.
jobs =votes . Anyone who votes for this needs to be voted out of office. If they aren't, then the voters are to blame, i guess.
For air to ground there is only one pair of wings you need and that is the Harrier
Accept no substitutes
Except for the minor little fact that the Harrier has many of the same problems as the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18, while going subsonic, not able to take much punishment, and going through more fuel.
If you're looking for close air support, go for the A-10 Warthog...
A lot of this has to do with who you give the money to, rather than what you're getting for the money. Until the Mormons start coughing up some of their finest to fight, I'd say let the lake of blue government money dry up. Lockeed is lock, stock and steed carrying many a happy households of Utaz invasives.
I think you should do some research about Mormon participation in our Armed Forces before you start shooting your mouth off. The Mormons have been heavily represented in the forces for over 100 years.
Semper fi
The way Congress/Washington has one contracts has given us Haliburtin/Blackwater as well as the amount of things "in the pipeline" which are contracts we have had issues with but no one can stop the money drain from them. It appears the the lobbyists have done their jobs so well over the years we will get stuck again and again as those in Congress who have been on the take from these companies and "friends" they have made over the years who are reps of the companies so we are being double billed I think because of these Congress members. They have taken home to their states or their areas represented whose business benefit from these contracts since they figured out how to do this when our country was put together and has grown over the years to include amazing useless or too many of many things warehoused somewhere in the US or sent to other countries cheap or free to have them "benefit" from the useless things. Who knows how much waste has been warehoused and tossed or sent in the past 50 years alone?
Self-serving jingoism paraded about as truth. False premises serving as the basis for a non-argument. First, 80 to 90% of the US military budget has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual defense of this country. The majority of this money is used to provide socialism for the wealthy, with weapons that serve to coerce those who wish to defend their countries from US imperialism, to ensure that the US can steal whatever it likes, break laws and invade countries that happen to have resources our corporate masters covet. The gluttonous major defense contractors that feed at the public trough could not survive without this public dole, this corporate welfare, could not survive in a free market. Second, our money is NOT best spent on continuing the various wars of corporate capitalist neo-colonialism the US has aggressively pursued for decades now. Using the illegal invasion of Iraq, and the on-going US crimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan as justification ignores the most salient fact: the reason these troops are under threat is because they are there. Remove them, and the threat disappears. "Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it ..."
US General Douglas MacArthur
Very True...Especially if General Douglas MacArthur said it.
General and President Eisenhower said " beware of the military/industrial complex ". President Eisenhower was right. This is exactly what our Congress has given us.
" It's The Truth"
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