Confessions of a Super Power...

We won the Gulf War and that was the end!...

It was the end of the military as we knew it. The Military Air Command was dismantled. The Strategic Air Command that kept us safe for 46 years was dismantled...as were other units of the military responsible for our glorious win...

After our celebrated victory--a victory that made it clear we were the world's only super power , orders came down to dismantle the “winning” forces, cut staffs and become a world power in name only. Readiness to respond to any challenge was reset from the thirty minutes it took to get a SAC bomber into the air to today's readiness standard: four years!...or even longer. That’s right, the Pentagon’s view was that we didn’t have another threat; herefore, we didn’t need the elaborate infrastructure that was in place that guaranteed our "readiness" and our win!. Staffs of the Air Force were cutby 29%; military subcontractors fell out of the loop.



Our major electronic components were now being supplied by our ally, Japan. China was a major subcontractor for military components. According to one Japanese expert, in ten years Japan could change from an ally into an enemy. Then what would we do for the specialized parts that are so much a part of our weapons systems?



Today, the Pentagon says that they are aiming for a military where 15% of the Army is replaced by robotic devices… The push to replace humans with machines is uppermost in the strategies of the Military. However, one thing has not changed.



It will still take us four years or more to meet a major new military challenge.



Not only do we no longer have an industry capable of turning out sophisticated instrumentation and controls, we no longer have a machine tool industry which is the essential building block of any manufactured product...we have minimum output domestically of bearings, those little marble like things that keep every mechanical thing running... .



To think we would need four years to anticipate the future of this country is a travesty we can ill afford; yet nobody’s doing anything about it and we seem to blunder on burying our incompetence under a carpet that is getting lumpier all of the time.



In the Iraq debacle, if we take the time to investigate how nearly four hundred billion dollars was spent with absolutely no positive outcome for our investment, we can begin to see the glaring inefficiencies, the misallocation of billions of dollars—one of the major subcontractors can’t even account for billions of dollars—the corruption and misappropriation that has characterized the American effort. For this and this alone, this president and his administration need to be replaced if for no other reason.



Today’s Air Force has replaced its perfectly serviceable F19’s, F22’s, F18’s and replaced them with a new all purpose jet fighter/bomber; only the cost per new fighter is about ten times the cost of the old fighters; double what was originally quoted by the subcontractor. Why? The Pentagon and the procurement divisions simply allowed their competitors to merge or go out of business. Why not? The taxpayer was going to pay the freight anyway! Another abuse that the public doesn’t seem to know about or what’ worse, care about and so the abuses go on and on.



Where do we go from here? Well, the startling truth is that the military seems to be our strong suit. In the interests of a strong military, we have virtually ignored everything else—education, science, technology (for nonmilitary purposes), manufacturing, alternative fuels and other areas of growth where we need a strong foundation to compete in today’s world. Something to think about when it comes time to exercise our vote.





Best wishes and 'happy dreams',



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon.