A Source of Our Military Successes and our Homeland Security is by maintaining our Military on the cutting edge of Military Technology. In today's world where technology often outpaces production, we cannot afford to be on the sidelines while our adversaries jump ahead of our weapon systems. That alone should be sufficient grounds to fund the production of the next generation of fighters.
But we are in a time of economic crisis and the far left of the DNC: Frank and Murtha are calling for cuts in Military Spending to the tune of 25% while the President himself looks more moderate in his calls for the Joint Chiefs to plan for cuts of 10%. This sets the stage for current programs to be cut substantially and has politicians scrambling to ensure the programs in their states are not cut.
It was almost a year ago when I sat in the office of a politician as he was grilling me to get support for his pet projects and frankly I just didn't have the background to endorse them. I told him then that he
should "listen to the Generals" and the experienced members of that specialty. But I did have information that countered the marketing of some of the proponents of one contractor over the other. Nothing gets a "dove" politician more inspired for a weapons system than it creating jobs in their district.
Since then, much has changed though, particularly the economic forecast and Consumer Confidence Index. Congress is currently debating an economic stimulus bill that seems to favor pork and continue to expand the government into arenas that the Constitution never allowed. But what if there were a way to preserve jobs while at the same time keeping our Military at the forefront of technology?
With the stroke of the pen, President Obama can save at least 10,000 jobs and as many as 100,000, within the scope of what the federal government is designed to do: Protect Our Nation from enemies. The argument used for the UAW bailout bill was the ability and history of the Big Three in weapons production, but we're talking about a program and factories actively and currently engaged in weapons production. The Big 3 hasn't been converted to weapons production in recent history, though they likely make money from the factories they operate that do pump out HumVees and Tanks.
With a vote in Congress, we can approve the salvation of these 10,000-100,000 highly skilled workers and the money is already approved, just not released. It's a paltry $140 Million already budgeted to keep things moving. $140 Million doesn't sound paltry until one considers that GM's UAW Workers wanted $17 Billion alone to run production lines of products few outside their inflated salaries can afford. Even the $12 Billion seems small in comparison to the $819 Billion in additional deficit spending being considered by our current "Representatives."
Still, there's an argument raging in the debate of future weapon systems and theory that claims we should choose between planning for Large Conventional wars or Small, Long Wars. Whether we might face an all out war with another Nation-State of similar power to our own or a number of small "bush" wars needing a Counter-Insurgency strength. The answer is we're most likely to face the enemy we don't plan for. We must therefore plan and develop tactics and weapon systems for both, that is if we don't wish to fight either.
If we want to avoid a war with China, North Korea, or Russia, the best means is to be ready for that war. If we learned nothing else from the Cold War, we should have learned that. Air Superiority is a key factor to winning conventional wars and we've established we can do that against 3rd World powers, but other regional and super powers don't necessarily take that lying down. We must continually improve our fighters to stay ahead and keep them on notice that we can beat them in the air as well.
Even the Osprey program, so beleaguered for so long is finally paying dividends in Iraq. At this stage of the conflicts, we could possibly get by with P-38's from WWII, but we could not have gotten to this stage without F-117 Stealths, B-2 Bombers, F-18's & F15's. Still, if we depended on WWII technology at this stage, it would be paid for in the lives of our Ground Troops. As great as the Viet Nam era UH-1 Huey is, had we not updated to the UH-60 Blackhawk, we'd lose more Troops than we do now.
So, the F-22 Raptor Program would seem to be the perfect policy to sign and vote for whether looking at it from a Military point of view, an economic point of view, or a Constitutional point of view. Amazingly, it is in jeopardy of being mothballed along with the 10,000-100,000 jobs across 44 states at the very time we need them and it the most. It is a shame that the absolute power and stubborn partisanship afforded the DNC would allow them to consider sending so many skilled workers across so many states to the unemployment lines for no greater cause than ignorant idealism.
To get the numbers straight from those most committed to saving this program and send a message to YOUR politicians to get on board with preserving this program, you can visit this site, which has letters ready to send out to all that need to hear from you.
The federal government is charged with National Defense, not Condom Company bankrolling. It is time they heard from the people, telling them to remember the Constitution, not their Corporate Constituencies. It's time for them to hear from the people, that we want them to preserve jobs by protecting the Nation. It's time they heard from the voters that want the F-22 Raptor.
War on Terror News©2009, ARM, all rights reserved
Other articles on the F-22:
Acquisition Plans to Cut Costs
Did I say "Ask the Generals?" I should have said "Ask the Jet-Jockies"
Stumble It!
