Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
George Washington said; “If you are to have peace, prepare for war”. I guess SecDef didn’t get the memo.
Washington was paraphrasing a Roman Senator for 73AD: “If you wish peace, prepare for war”.
Oh goody!
WWII was such an excellent end to the 1929 recession that was turned into the Great Depression by imbecilic socialist policies.
It appears that the Odiot has a seamlessly integrated plan to take us from recession, to depression, to war, to …
I hate fair fights. Don’t like them. especially when lives depend on it, and they do…
This plot of the peaceful US vs the rearming USSR will make a great Tom Clancy novel.
Big whup!
The USSR and we had long played belligerent games all during the decades of the Cold War. Saber rattling, posturing, May Day military parades, hyperbole, Bear over-flights, Cuban missiles, Power’s shoot down, arms races, massive military budgets, Communist encroachment, Czechoslovakia, spies and traitors, submarine games etc., occurred perpetually. So nothing-new here to be concerned about.
But note well that with those many years of angry and belligerent faints, shifts, and repositions, we never went to war – and will not go to war in the future – because of one reason –Nukes. MAD!
While we did fight proxy wars, we could not even win them. Reason? The same. China and the USSR with many Nukes. We could not risk a nuclear war with them, so we lost Vietnam.
When either side has the nuclear weapons to totally defeat (obliterate) the other in less than an hour, who cares about the balance of lesser and immediately irrelevant military hardware that would be instantly rendered, OBE?
The emerging loser in a conventional war will naturally up the ante rather than lose…. to Nukes. Anything else is rubbish and irrelevant…. as is now being fearful of a lessened Russia’s weak rearmament plan.
So lets ask the question-which side of the fence is Gates really on? Was he on the Bush side, and if so why did he stay on?; or does he believe that the Pentagon could actually do a better job of spending almost 700 billion dollars a year?
I’m not sure what the answer is-but I’m leaning towards the latter option. Otherwise, why would he put himself through this? Seats at Texas A&M football games every week have to be better than the beating he will get from both sides of the political spectrum.
At least fencing with the Russians came with beer and peanuts in some good liberty ports…………..
Yeah, this all comes under the heading of “you can’t make it up,” I mean, virtually simultaneous announcements! What a classic! I’m with Skippy on this one, opening up some of the cold-war haunts again will at least console us by providing more beer and entertainment…..except I think Gates’ idea of entertainment for us AF types is everyone in either barco-loungers in Nevada or in C-17s/141s/130s hauling the Army around….and nothing in between.
A little positivity: NFL Network – Flyovers. Good stuff…but maybe no money for it in the future..
Unless, you’re talking “CON(gressional) AIR” for Ms. P. Yes, intentional double dipping the vocabulary here.
Hmmm, don’t necessarily think this will be Cold War Part Deux. OTOH, with petro hovering around $40-50/barrel, the cash cow that Moscow had expected to base it’s armaments expansion on isn’t there now with a corresponding crimp on the economy as a whole. Second – if you think our armamemnts industrial base has shrunk, well ditto for Russia’s. A base that can upgrade only one Blackjack per year or a shipbuilding industry that suffers regular cost overruns and underperforming in delivery (oh wait – I seem to recall someone else suffering that too…(Byron – here’s your cue)).
They are, however, engaged in some interesting, if not questionable international partnering on cruise missiles and other weapons (like subs) with India with whom we are proposing to sell our latest in strike-fighter ware, replete with AESA and all along with our new ASW bird.
Still, Russia is always an opportunist and will nearly always put up a lot of smoke and light when it senses an opportunity to increase it’s standing at someone else’s expense. Shouldn’t come as a surprise then that we see this rhetoric as they see the US engaged in Afghanistan, an Administration bent on turning guns into butter and following a SecState’s visit whose centerpiece theme was a craven beg for a “do over” (and highlighted by a staff that couldn’t even use Bablefish to verify the translation on a sophmoric gag gift…).
Yea, it’s gonna be fun for the next few years.
- SJS
P.S. Did I mention the imploding ethnic Russian poopulation vs the exploding muslim population in the south and the Chinese immigrants in the east? Put the lid on, let simmer for oh, say, 5-10 years and things are going to get *real* interesting.
The article was spot on. A number of years ago Cohen was Rep senator from Maine and on the SASC. When the flag I worked for testified every year on the Hill, Cohen was one that was for strong defense, judicious use of taxpayer dollars, and cuts in procurement and OM&N that affected the WEST coast only! Like Todd shipyard, or Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Keep Bath open, keep Portsmouth open. Not due to economies of production or efficiency in procurement or lesser cost to taxpayer or Needs of the Navy but simply jobs. Damn the facts on Russian sub production, Russian Sukhoi production, etc. Nope, short term sight focused only on the MY LEGACY factor. A former Secnav said in a closed door meeting that they (the Hill) never worried about the fallout of their decisions because they had unbreakable faith in ability of US military to win -over the long haul – and without regard to near term casualties or catastrophes. that and the average Hill staffer had less accurate knowledge of the military than a first year JROTC stud.
Second verse – same as the first.
From the Jun 5, 2008 Economist
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11496828
“Today a resurgent, confident and globalising China is rebuilding its naval strength. Like India, its rising Asian rival, it already has an impressive army. But both countries are finding that rapid economic growth is providing the money to realise long-cherished dreams of building ocean-going “blue-water” navies that can project power far from their home shores.
In the past two years China’s navy has acquired new destroyers, frigates and submarines, some home-built, some (including its most advanced kit) Russian. A recent study by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) concluded that China was also close to beginning the production of aircraft-carriers, which would give it the ability to project airpower over great distances.”
The economic conditions don’t seem to stand in the way…… China says this past November in this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/world/asia/18china.html
“A high-ranking Chinese military official has hinted that China’s fast-growing navy is seeking to acquire an aircraft carrier, a move that would surely stoke tensions with the United States military and its allies in Asia. In an interview published in The Financial Times of London on Monday, the official, Maj. Gen. Quan Lihua”
At least the U.S has nothing to worry about according to Maj Gen Quan..
At least we have that going for us…..
Just check the defense headlines:
Second S-400 air defense regiment put into service in Russia. (Oh – oh. twice the range of Patriot.)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Russian RS-24 missiles to go on duty in December – commander of RVSN . (New MIRV with at least 4 warheads)
Moscow sings deal to sell S-300 air defense systems to Iran.
Maybe we need to re-visit that there UAV blog-roll from yestidee. Swarms of armed stealth drone-oids may be what we wind up with in the holster.
SJS is right on about the changing demographics. It is estimated that over 300 million Chinese will move from rural to metropolitan areas over the next decade. That is almost the entire US population on the move. Their demand for oil, commodities, and secure source of raw materials will inevitably bring them into a confrontation with either us or the Russians.
Not sure who the bigger threat really is- an imploding Russia or a booming China. That is, assuming the O’s vaunted economic fix works its magic on the world.
We have an administration that will bankrupt us all to bail out the banks, AIG, illegal aliens, the unions, the corrupt, the inept…..
And is now bailing out on the veterans and the military.
God Save the United States!
Short of being consumed by a massive flame war; wouldn’t you like to see China protect some of the sea lanes for Walmart?
The old “Engine Charlie” Wilson theory, eh, babs?