Here’s Av Week’s impression of where Obama will go with defense:
Obama promises to put “people first” in the military and bring major combat operations in Iraq to a close over the next few years. He wants to boost the National Guard and reserves, from personnel to equipment, and emphasize diplomatic efforts to promulgate U.S. interests abroad. But most importantly to the U.S. aerospace and defense industry — as well the foreign-based firms — Obama openly declares his desire to subdue the so-called military industrial complex that has long irked liberal advocates.
An Obama administration will “place our troops before CEOs, reining in military outsourcing and restoring honesty, openness, and economic good sense to our defense contracting and budgeting processes,” according to a recently updated campaign Web site position.
“Negative trends in recruitment and retention threaten the strength of the all-volunteer force,” the Obama campaign says. “In allowing this to occur, President Bush is repeating mistakes made at the end of the Vietnam War that ‘hollowed out’ our force. An Obama administration will rebuild a military that has been pushed to the breaking point.”
Combined, the platform of Obama and running mate Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) paints a person-over-program picture, although the Democrats assert their willingness to develop, buy and equip the U.S. military with the best weapons and technology. But even there, Obama will favor admittedly blander programs that make for the backbone of global operations rather than high-profile fighters and attack aircraft.
“We must preserve our unparalleled airpower capabilities to deter and defeat any conventional competitors, swiftly respond to crises across the globe, and support our ground forces,” the Democratic candidate says.
“We must adapt and make tradeoffs among systems originally designed for the Cold War and those required for current and future challenges. We need greater investment in advanced technology ranging from the revolutionary, like unmanned aerial vehicles and electronic warfare capabilities, to systems like the C-17 cargo and KC-X air refueling aircraft–which may not be glamorous to politicians, but are the backbone of our future ability to extend global power,” the Obama camp says.
Nevertheless, rather than wholesale upheaval, changes to the Pentagon’s budget, force structure and military capabilities are likely to come in measured amounts as the U.S. faces wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as continuing counter-terrorism efforts around the world and at home. As Aviation Week reported in late June, the next president will face mounting economic and budgetary pressures that will weigh on their defense policies as much or more than just the post-9–11 concerns of the Bush administration.
– Christian
{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
Obama has vowed to kill Missile Defence.
Obama has vowed to draw down and not modernize our nuclear arsenal.
Meanwhile, Russia surges ahead in its modernization of its own nuclear capability.
“Troops before CEOs” is just more of the class-warfare rhetoric he used to ingratiate himself with certain weak minded elements in our society that easily fall for such pandering.
Like the lady seen on the Drudge report who said “Obama will fill my gas tank and pay my mortgage”.
“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” Obama said. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded.”
Could he have meant the likes of the Black Panthers last seen intimidating whites from voting in Philadelphia?
Wes – I’ll send you $100 if you can provide me with concrete evidence of anyone saying “Obama will fill my gas tank and pay my mortgage.”
Does the nuclear arsenal needs to be modernized? I mean, it can already destroy the world, its harder to get any better than that. What it needs of course is maintance.
If the army finally adopts a piston operated rifle during Obama term, he can be considered the greatest president military wise ever. =P
I can’t wait to hear all of his flowery, pandering, hollow, and substanceless rhetoric when he has to deal with Russia invading the Ukraine, China invading Taiwan, India and Pakistan exchanging nukes, the middle east erupting into war after Israel bombs Iran’s nuclear sites, and a terrorist strike on the US. How many wars will his weakness and cluelessness cause? How many American deaths will it bring? What bittersweet irony that Ayer’s protege might have to resort to a draft.
Joshik;
Get your $100 ready for Wes.better find out if he takes cash or a check…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=381gFG4Crr8
Joshik,
Here you go,
http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/woman-barack-obama-will-pay-my-mortgage-and-fill-my-gas-tank/
What Barack will do. he will make women eligible for the draft & put them into combat arms positions like infantry,armor,& field artillery.He may even put them into Special Forces like the SEALS & “Delta Force.” What he won’t do,get us out of Iraq & Afghanistan,no matter how much he promised. Venezuela,North Korea& Iran will still be our enemies. The U.S. will still be the “Great Satan.” The Global War On Terror will expand into the “Domestic War On Terror” with Obama “protecting” us from white supremacy groups & private militias. Crime will skyrocket out of control like in South Africa. We’ll contiue our global presence,but with fastly becoming outdated military equipment that is becoming worn out. He will be more proud of advancing women & gays in the military than in actually giving the troops the equipment they need. Don’t be surprised if the F-22s are capped at the planes ALREADY fielded & the F-35 JSF is cancelled. The “savings” will be used to strengthen Northern Command & Homeland Security against the “Domestic [non-Islamic & certainly non-Hispanic] Terrorist” threat. the Fairness Doctrine(“Hush Rush”) will be made into law,assault rifles will be banned again,& the internet will have China styled controls & censorship put in place.
The military missions will be increased far beyond the breaking point without the necessary equipment to support them.
What’s with “so-called military-industrial complex” ?
Eisenhower used the term, and he certainly knew what he was talking about. In the years since then the links between the military and their suppliers have become ever stronger (thanks to that revolving door that allows them to step out of uniform and into a well-paid corporate sinecure).
Obama might try and challenge it, but those guys are way bigger and meaner than him — and they know how to play dirty.
My money is on Lockheed, Boeing, NorGrum, BAE, Raytheon and the other big boys to send the new Pres packing in short order.
It takes more than one elected official to stop a multibillion dollar juggernaut once it gets going.
I cringe at this Yahoo headline:
“Obama to begin receiving highly classified intelligence briefings”
This man shouldn’t be trusted with the dogcatcher’s schedule.
Roy, I’m sorry to say it, but you’ve just laid out the “best case” scenario.
Hopefully he (or is it He?) will quickly kill the procurement and deployment of BMD. Other than, not much will change right away, other than maybe an overall budget haircut forcing people to actually make a choice of what is important and what we really need. 16 years of ‘kids in the candy store’ budgets has to end.
I wonder what obama will do about gitmo
HPC has had the only sensible comment so far.
Ok may i ask a question considering we spent 4.7% of the GDP on defense in the cold war era and spend 4.0% now…how is the military eating our budget?
I have this horrible feeling the next 4 yrs are gonna make me wish for Carter….hell even Bill Clinton.
You know what I find heelarious. It’s the vast amount of power Obama is going to have as president due to people turning a blind eye to Bush’s power grab.
All those folks who said “hey, he’s our preident we should do whatever he says” now get to watch Obama – probably their biggest nightmare – inherit those powers.
Expansion of FISA, wiretapping, secret searches, all kinds of curtailing of personal liberties granted to Bush are now in Obama’s hands. Better hope he’s a nicer guy than GWB or you’re all on the no-fly list.
I wanna know where I can sign up for this massive “National Civilian Security Force” he promised to create.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-plans-for-civilian-security-force.html
I am hoping at least to get enlisted as an Hauptsturmfuhrer.
am hoping at least to get enlisted as an Hauptsturmfuhrer.
Posted by: Han Solo at November 5, 2008 01:42 PM
ROFLMAO!
I wonder if I could get a security clearance if I had associations like Obama?
Roy,
Clinton sold our national security, defense, and technology secrets to the Communist Chinese through Loral Industries using the Commerce Department under Ron Brown. He also undermined our defense industry by giving away lucrative contracts to Russia for missiles we had to perfect for them such as the Kh-31 Krypton (and which were subsequently sold to the Chinese and are now pointed back at us.)
As bad as the domestic policies of Bush Sr. and Jr. were, I don’t recall them selling out this country’s defense secrets to foreign interests.
Obama? He might as well have a For Sale sign on the front lawn of the White House and Bill Ayres, Bernadine Dohrn, Tony Rezko, and Rashid Khalid dressed in cheap suits with a 25% commission.
Roy you crack me up trying to blame Black Hawk Down on Bush the Elder. Everybody that knows anything about it will tell you the Clinton Administration denied the request of the in theater commader for tanks, bradleys, and ac-130s because they didn’t want to hurt the public opinion towards the administration. But hey, let’s just keep blaming it on the evil republicans.
You guys are all right. The world is going to end tomorrow. I would go into the woods and hide for about 4 to 8 years.. The rest of us will hold down the fort out here.
I’m having a hard time understanding all this fear. This country has been going to hell in a bucket for quite a while now and a Democratic President is the biggest problem we face? I think it’s time to look a little closer at the big picture.
Drudge managed to find a silly, uninformed ideologue to put on his show? Is he interviewing replacements?
As far as specific programs, President-Elect Obama has “vowed” nothing except to see that our troops are better cared for and that all spending gets the scrutiny it deserves.
Reminds me a bit of what Bill Clinton was alleged to have said when one of his supporters objected to the military aircraft parade overflight of the 1993 inaguration:
“Remember, those are our planes now”
I find the comments on here quite funny. I bet you folks ridiculed the libs who were whining as bad as you are in 2000 and 2004. And now when a Dem is president you feed into the stupidity frenzy and believe every random blog posting from yet another blowhard armchair warrior.
You think anything changes depending on who’s the president? Grow up.
I likewise find the a lot of the comments here ridiculous. Almost everyone seems so jaded. I mean, as far as America has fallen these past 8 years we still do have the best military in the world. Nobody can touch us, and I can’t see anyone catching up with us for at least a decade.
Now, everyone knows guerilla warfare is an entirely different animal. But iraq was supposed to have one of the better militaries in the entire middle east, and we dismantled them in a matter of weeks like it was nothing.
The urban game is different, but there is improvement there too. I just think it is ridiculous to believe that everything is going to go down the crapper now, just because the conservatives aren’t their to watch over us. America decided that it was time to let someone else have a go, and if Barack Obama follows through with creating a bi-partisan cream of the crop administration then so much the better.
The difference between Democrat / Republican / Conservative / Liberal as President is a matter of degrees and philosophies; people will worry about the direction the president is taking the country, but overt fear is usually not warranted.
The game changes entirely when your President is a national security risk. Anyone who studies Obama’s past and his past and current partnerships with people like Ayers, Dohrn, Rezko, Khalid, et al. will realize he is a national security risk. With such knowledge, fear is a very real and very appropriate reaction.
I would say the same of Kerry and Clinton. Clinton traveled to the Soviet Union during the Vietnam war to protest America’s involvement and Kerry met with the North Vietnamese three times in Paris while he was still a member of the US armed forces and the war was on-going. Both are national security risks. Kerry is, in fact, guilty of high treason.
To Daniel, that was the actor Ron Silver who said that. He’s a conservative now.
To Moose, Obama basically vowed to destroy America’s military superiority:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp2ZBc_WEh4
A few people hear need to pull their head out of their rear end.
Everyone forgets the Dems care only about votes. The military does not support them at the ballot box they will pay for that. But the Dems love social programs so to keep veterans and families happy will increase the social spending for the military hoping to buy votes. But this will be at the expense of warfighters and weapons.
Defense, at 4% of GDP, is cheap but it will be cut by Obama. He will also allow key technologies, like nuclear weapons and their delivery systems to die on the vine.
Joshik
Wes – I’ll send you $100 if you can provide me with concrete evidence of anyone saying “Obama will fill my gas tank and pay my mortgage.”
Posted by: Joshik at November 5, 2008 11:14 AM
No need to send the cash but it’s on youtube. I’m sure you are as suprised as I am that so many fools rushed in and mindlessly voted for Baraq when they knew nothing of him. You aren’t one of them are you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6ikOxi9yYk
Thanks,
Steve
“So Now What?
If you were a supporter of the thieving pigf*****s that have been running this country into the ground over the past 8+ years, you can start by shutting the **** up.
This country changed last night, you are either part of that change, or you are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Posted by: TB at November 5, 2008 09:04 PM”
TB—>An intellectual giant with a fitting name.
C’mon, folks…we survived Carter and we survived Clinton. We’ll survive Obama’s one term just as well.
No matter what Barack Obama does,he is just one man. The “holy grail” for the Democrats is to get 60 Senate seats. So far as I can tell,they are 4 seats short of accomplishing that. They also have to replace Obama’s & Biden’s Senate seats with Democrats. There are still senate races up for grabs,like in Georgia & Minnesota,& if they get someone else in Ted Steven’s Senate seat,there is no guarantee that it will be filled by a Democrat. If the Democrats get their 60 seats,they can force legislation that cannot be filibustered by Republicans.
As far as the Bush,Sr.,Clinton,Bush,Jr. cycle goes with the military,the Clinton administration DID draw down the military according to Cheney’s & then Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Colin Powell plans,that included the army having 12 divisions,2 of which were cadre divisions. Rumsfeld NEVER undid any of the DOD decisions made during the Clinton years. Cheney & Rumsfeld have as much blood on their hands as anyone in the Clinton Admin. when it comes to drastic downsizing & over stretching the military. Neither Cheney nor Rumsfeld ever attempted to build the forces back up like during the Reagan admin. In fact,they whittled the armed forces down further. I imagine that Obama’s admin will continue to “restructure” the army as far as the “Brigade Unit of Action” being the combat unit used over the “Division.” They’ll most likely invest more in UAV’s(because Predators can be used to fly over the Rocky Mountains & Appalachian Mountains hunting down those domestic “Private Militia/White Supremacist” terrorists). I imagine that they’ll make Northern Command more robust with the “brigades” needed to combat “domestic terrorism.” Central Command will most likely return to being just a “paper command” along with European Command & Pacific Command.
DC2,
LMAO – you are right on target.
Josh (not related to Joshik)
Still waiting for my $100.
I will take PayPal
My PP adress is:
wes_turner@hotmail.com
Thanks
bdwilcox,
Most people drink some sort of KoolAid, some drank from the Democratic bowl and some from the Republican.
Don’t smear others when you too have had a drink.
Andre,
You’re right, I drank the Kool-Aid, but the Kool-Aid I drank was in the flavor of God, Honor, and Country.
As far as centrists and independents go (of which you seem to consider yourself), they usually see themselves as enlightened and above the “unwashed masses” who have expressed their beliefs through a party or affiliation that embodies their values. In my opinion, they are cowards who are unwilling to either take a stand on their principles or let known their preconcepts for fear of rebuke. In the end, they are, as the Bible laments, “a reed swayed by the wind.” Alexander Hamilton notes their indifference as well: “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”
Thus, in less flowery prose: “Andre, go blow it out your arrogant, cowardly ass.”
The other odd thing about the Kool-Aid I drank was that it’s manufacturer, God and the Founding Fathers inspired by His word, never offered the flavor which the Democrats and Obama currently serve up. In fact, they noted that such a flavor was poison to men and to liberty.
bdwilcox,
You are a complete moron, people like yourself cannot be reasoned with.
F**king ass.
I am just hoping that Obama below was not like I suspect “the real deal” and was instead just being another politician.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRGru2CPC4E&eurl=http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx2PP4pYGno&eurl=http://patdollard.com/2008/10/obama-calls-for-an-american-gestapo/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bueCxeXZAUU&eurl=http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4yFsaxw6L8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdLX3aRNaNk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDTluWDUBEY&eurl=http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jerimya+wright&search_type=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4y9_JtYErI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDTluWDUBEY&eurl=http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYY73RO_egw
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jerimya+wright&search_type=
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=william+ayers&search_type=&aq=f
Yeah I have hope,,, hope that guy above is just another lying politician and not the real deal hardcore that string tells me.
“Sorry I don’t bow down to your way of thinking. I guess that is what makes America a free ******* country.”
-What I think is what the founding fathers thought and it’s those ideas that make this country free. It’s too bad that you’re too smart and enlightened to see this. Educated beyond your intelligence is what I suspect. This, of course, leads to that pungent elixir of arrogance and ignorance that chokes intelligent discourse and leads to hyperbole in the place of the free trade of ideas.
“wilcox, you are an “unwashed mass” because you don’t accept or tolerate anything different from you. In fact, you cast those that don’t hold your beliefs as being unholy and unamerican.”
-If I am a free man in your dystopian view of a free America, don’t I have the freedom to accept and reject ideas based on my unwavering principles? It seems not as, once again, the purveyors of tolerance show tolerance to everyone except those THEY consider intolerant.
What I hold as being American is what is contained in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. You know, things like the president being a natural born citizen, the protection of the people from illegal seizure of their property, the right to keep and bear arms, the limited power of the federal government etc. that the current Democratic party and their sycophants (and unfortunately, but to a lesser degree, the current Republican party) never seem to have heard of.
“That’s pathetic and I am glad I don’t agree with anything that you hold true.”
-Thank you. To me, that’s a badge of honor. Further proof I’m on the right track.
“Because in your corners of America that might seem ok, but those corners are getting smaller and smaller every day.”
-Sadly, this is true. More and more, freedom has been traded for a sense of security and therefore they deserve neither, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin.
“This is occurring not by any other force than allowing open thought and respect of others beliefs.”
-Like by calling people the Taliban. Right…
“You are a complete moron, people like yourself cannot be reasoned with.” – Andre
In matters of principle, it’s the weak-minded who “can be reasoned with”. Learned men tend to stand fast in their convictions.
wilcox,
I’m glad you realize your fate of extinction. It is my eternal hope that you live to see it happen.
DC2
DC2,
“May you get everything you want.”
So Now what?
This:
http://www.236.com/video/2008/get_your_war_on_new_world_orde_10121.php
Wilcox,
What I want is for the far right and left wing zealots of this country to realize what an insignificant part of the future of America you will become.
Glad you are starting. Now if we can get the tree huggers to come to their senses America can get back on track.
DC2
Greeting. Anyone who has gumption knows what it is, and anyone who hasn’t can never know what it is. So there is no need of defining it.
I am from Chile and learning to speak English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “In these sectors, the incident of theme bills was regardless considerably slower.”
Thank you very much 8-). Sebastien.
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