Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Frankly, Idiotic

Was I an optimist in ignoring the Barney Frank report on cutting defense spending? Was I wrong to think this couldn't be Obama administration thinking but merely a big-ego loon's notions of defense that just didn't matter?

I hope this is plain wrong:

The Obama administration intends to slash the defense budget in order to pay for its riotous spending on bailouts, “stimulus bills,” their signature healthcare program, and massive pork bribes for votes from congressmen who hopefully will not survive this November’s balloting. To continue the spending spree, the White House plans to eliminate over a trillion defense dollars in the next ten years. Details of those proposed cuts were laid out by Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) Sustainable Defense Task Force in a 56 page report titled: Debt, Deficits, & Defense – A Way Forward. None of the service arms are spared.

I thought I was being a pessimist when I outlined our apparent new medium term rule where we assume no threats on the horizon and let our military coast without pushing for new weapons and risking reduced readiness:

We've just instituted the Medium Term Rule on our defense spending. The problems that will flow from this plan won't show themselves in the near term. We can coast on our past progress in building the best military in the world. But have no doubt that our military strength will erode, and this means we are accepting risks in case we have to fight a conventional war in the medium term despite our assumption that we can still win such a war.

Good grief. Gradual erosion of our military capabilities is a best case scenario, if that Frank plan to gut our defenses is what the Obama administration wants.