Bush is destroying the military. All major defense programs in jeopardy.

[doubles]

500 billion dollars in tax cuts for the rich and a 200 billion dollar war with Iraq who the administration admitted had nothing to do with AL Qaeda and 9/11 and now, our defense industry will pay the price.

All future technology projects to sustain a strong military is on the chopping block. Our military is the best in the world because of our men and women in uniform and without a doubt, our vast technological advantage.

Democrats need to campaign on this, a helicopter program was already cut. Clinton never canned any military programs and after two years in office, Clinton reversed the Pentagon's budget cuts that started under papa Bush and increased the Pentagon's budget for years after.

Never allow a Republican to claim we are weak on defense when they are the ones gutting the military!

From Defense daily.....

CS FIRST BOSTON DOWNGRADES DEFENSE SECTOR ON LOOMING FEDERAL DEBT WOES: Defense stocks took a hit on Wall Street yesterday after Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) late Monday issued a report downgrading the sector, mainly due to increasing levels of federal debt, which "have historically been unsustainable" and augur "tough choices in government outlays and tax policy." Citing a recent Congressional Budget Office report, which said that current Pentagon spending projections are $500B short of the money needed to fund all the weapons programs on the books over the next 10 years, CSFB said this further increases the likelihood that some programs could get the axe in the next few years just as the Army's Comanche helicopter program did last month. His specific list of risky programs include the Air Force F/A-22 fighter, "large segments of ballistic missile defense," large shipbuilding programs like the next-generation Navy's CVN-21 aircraft carrier and the Virginia-class submarine program, the V-22 tilt- rotor program, and to a lesser extent, the Army's FCS and to a lesser extent the F-35 JSF. <snip> (Defense Daily)

[aquart]

1. After all the money they spent on George, this is their reward?

Well, that's just not fair, is it?

[madrchsod]

2. yes and all those

dollars we send to china gives them the ability to develop and buy weapons systems. they`re going to launch their space program with the money we have sent them. but the corporations don`t care-who ever has the cheapest labor

[Crachet2004]

3. I think you are right, they are destroying our military.

JFK ran on the 'missle gap', and it could work again, if you could get the right spin on it.

It's a hard point to make though, because the defense numbers are so large today. Hard to pin them as being weak on defense...but again, I agree they are destroying us.

Just between us, however, when you look around the world at likely attackers, you will find approximately none...therefore how big a military do you need? This is why they finally came up with the 'War on Terror'...no nation in their right mind would attack the US, so it was a bill of goods that could'nt be sold.

We might be better off to buy only what we need for a continental defense. Then, when a nut like Bush is elected, he won't have the wherewithal for adventuring!

[doubles]

6. I've heard that China has a fighter jet in the making that will

surpass anything in our current arsenal. As long as China, and North Korea are around, we cannot afford the risk of being second best.

[Crachet2004]

9. There is a story that comes to mind, from our own Civil War era...

Toward the end of the war, a Northern and Southern soldier had a chance to talk, during one of the battlefield lulls that sometimes took place in that war...like when they were gathering up the dead.

The Northerner, knowing the War was almost over, and that the South would surely lose, asked: 'Why do you keep on fighting?'

The Southern soldier just shrugged, and said, 'because you are down HERE'!


Now. We have troops in 120 countries, out of 194 on this planet. What do you think the Southern soldier would think about that?

[tjwash]

4. Wait a minute, according to bush*...

...didn't Clinton already destroy the military?

[fearnobush]

5. Do not allow our U.S. A. to appease Bush. Stop him!!! do anything

to get the word out!!! Submitt yourselves to Rove tactics if you don't have a conscience. Get him out!!! This man and his master will spark a world war against the USA if he is ti remain the dictator and chief.

[punpirate]

7. I wish I could agree...

... but I don't. First, spending is going up, not down. The deficit is to a considerable a reflection of overspending on defense, but that deficit is going to be attacked in a Republican Congress by cutting essential services and entitlement programs, not defense.

Many of the programs cited have significant flaws (the V-22 program is an example) and others duplicate one another (three major ongoing fighter development programs).

Further, this alarmist rhetoric perpetuates a well-entrenched myth in this country--that our security is directly proportional to the amount of money spent--a myth that is patently false. If we were really informed about the nature of security, really concerned about it, the focus of the military would have been revamped a decade ago, and we would be very happy with spending less, not more, and getting more for it.

Moreover, a goodly part of this money is being spent not for defense, in the traditional sense of the word, but, rather for offense. We need only to look at the way the military has been used since WWII.

And, if one needs to be reminded of the obvious about this issue of offense vs. defense, the entire defense and intelligence establishment dropped the ball on 9/11/2001. Avoiding, containing, limiting and defending against that sort of attack was the next to last thing on the defense establishment's to-do list.

The current system is wasteful and is simply now a tool for the expansion of empire, and for the expansion of the financial waistlines of the very wealthy in this country.

[beanball]

8. Yo Pirate

your last paragraph hit the nail on the head.