Re: Off We Go

[John Noonan]

Hahaha, I participated in an email round table discussing Robert's article... along with a couple of folks from Danger Room and Mike Goldfarb from the Weekly Standard. It should be out this week.

Not as absurd as you think. Although I did argue against rolling the AF into the Army.... just because I hate standing in formation.

Can't Win the War... on Fire

[Soldier's Mom]

In case you are one of the two people on Earth that do not read Blackfive, Laughing Wolf posted a link to this outrageously satirical piece that is a MUST read... just don't be drinking anything when you read it -- or the comments (which are an integral part of the humor).

Just in case you need a chuckle or an outright laugh today.

Re: IVAW

[Greyhawk]

Here's a handy pocket guide.

Microsoft and USO Announce "Above and Beyond" Awards

[Mrs Greyhawk]

Soldiers' Angels Germany:

Patti Patton-Bader, founder of Soldier's Angels, has been nominated as a finalist in the first annual "Above and Beyond" awards, presented by Microsoft and in partnership with the USO. The awards were created to recognize the contributions of the military community - the friends, family, and other individuals who help brighten the lives of U.S. troops throughout the world.

According to Microsoft, the "Above and Beyond Awards is our way of publicly honoring and thanking the outstanding commitment, exceptional service, sacrifice and achievements of individuals who have shown extraordinary dedication in brightening the lives of our troops over the past year."

Patti has been nominated for the Effort Award, which recognizes an individual who:

* Offers outstanding support and comfort to our troops.
* Helps enhance morale and personal welfare of our troops.
* Through their mentorship, inspires other groups/individuals to create new and unique ways to show their support of the troops.
* Has impacted the lives of many through their leadership and guidance.

Please take a minute and vote here.

Congratulations on the nomination, and good luck Patti!

Thanks MaryAnn

Fight Back

[Greyhawk]

Robert Redford, on the war on terror:

The problem is not with the people that started this. The problem's with us.

We've discussed this Fall's spate of Hollywood anti-war movies here - and are heartened by their failure to attract a significant number of viewers. Still, in years to come, those movies will be seen as "defining" the conflict in Iraq.

There are counters to this message. While lacking Hollywood money or perspective, others have taken it upon themselves to actually travel to Iraq and document the real story of the war.

Want to help preserve that story? Take the money you aren't going to spend on Redford's latest and make it happen. Click here.

Off we go

[Greyhawk]

David Axe, at DefenseTech:

Fed up with unnecessary gold-plated fighter jet programs, the service’s impatience with counter-insurgency and its anti-China rhetoric, back in August I proposed the disbanding of the U.S. Air Force. The air service’s missions could be folded into the Army, Navy and Marine Corps without any loss in national power -- and we’d benefit from cuts to Pentagon overhead.

Now Robert Farley over at The American Prospect has taken up the cause in a new piece, “Abolish the Air Force.” To complement the piece, Farley has solicited input from a number of bloggers, including yours truly.

“Does the United States Air Force fit into the post–September 11 world, a world in which the military mission of U.S. forces focuses more on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency?”

Don't be confused by my link, I'm not a participant in that exercise, just acknowledging it's existence. (In fact, I'll go a step farther and acknowledge it's absurdity.)

But while likewise probably unaware of TAPs efforts, Joe Galloway offers a hint of counterpoint:

One of America's more thoughtful military strategists, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a veteran of ground combat in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf region, says that our "defense strategy is unbalanced, incoherent and underfunded."

McCaffrey made his comments and recommendations in a six-page analysis addressed to professors at West Point, where he's an adjunct professor of international relations.
<...>
"The U.S. Air Force is our primary national strategic force . . . yet it is too small, has inadequate numbers of aging aircraft, has been marginalized in the current strategic debate and has mortgaged its modernization program to allow diversion of funds to prosecute" underfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I refer to Galloway's piece as a "hint of counterpoint" because I've seen that 6-page document (it's unclassified) and can't help but notice that he avoids acknowledging that it's actually a trip report on General McCaffrey's visit to Nellis and Scott AFB. In short, it's a document devoted to espousing the USAF position on various issues, the most serious being the ChiCom threat to our precious bodily fluids:

The looming challenge to US national security and foreign policy sovereignty issues in the coming 15 years will be posed by the legitimate and certain emergence of the People’s Republic of China as a global economic and political power with the military muscle to challenge and neutralize the deterrence capacity of the US Navy and Air Force in the broad reaches of the Pacific maritime frontier. China will indeed soon have the military capacity in less than one generation to pose a national survival threat to US defensive capabilities and to challenge our ability to project power along the Pacific littoral.

Which we ignore because of Iraq:

US defense strategy is unbalanced, incoherent, and under-funded--- does not focus on the next generation deterrence and war-fighting missions--- and is distorted by the drain of US defense modernization dollars and manpower resources being funneled into the ground combat meat-grinder of the civil war in Iraq.
<...>
The debate over the disaster of the war in Iraq may soon be replaced by a greatly diminished defense budget as a tired, cynical and exhausted joint military force winds down our combat presence in the coming 36 months. We may swing from the eerie immaturity of the Rumsfeld era focus on the magic of technology as the sole determinant of national security--- to an equally disastrous concentration of building a ground combat force which could have won Iraq from the start--- absent the bad judgment of the Rumsfeld Pentagon and compliant Generals.

And how do we counter the Rumsfeldian "focus on the magic of technology"? McCaffrey offers:

SEVEN IMPERATIVES FOR US GLOBAL AIR POWER:
1st -- The F-22A Raptor.
• There is no single greater priority for the coming 10 years for the US Air Force than funding, deploying, and maintaining three-hundred and fifty (350+) F-22A Raptor aircraft to ensure air-to-air total dominance of battlefield air space in future contested areas. The Air Force has been forced to trade away their modernization budget because the aircraft has minimal value in low-intensity ground-air combat operations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. (The current 91 aircraft are simply inadequate for anything but special missions).
• This combat aircraft is sheer magic.

Much of which I find as disturbing as I do the previous argument absurd. It's unfortunate in that there are valid arguments presented in the General's report . The Defense budget - while bloated by unnecessary add-ons and pork projects, is nonetheless modest given our current threat level. But to wrap a valid argument in cold war-era paranoia and sprinkle it with personal opinions presented as established fact (or even consensus opinion) is to hand an opponent the ammunition he needs to blast you out of the sky. (It is, in fact, exactly the "impatience with counter-insurgency and its anti-China rhetoric" that Axe cites as his reason for questioning the Air Force's existence in the first place.)

Another Re: Guard/Fires

[Greyhawk]

Phil Carter: Nickel and Diming California's Veterans.

(Written before the fires.)

Lawfare victory in Yemen

[CDR Salamander]

Well, we see how foreign courts work vs. the Predator/Reaper.

Yemen has set free one of the Al Qaeda masterminds of the bombing that killed 17 American sailors aboard the destroyer Cole in 2000, a senior security official said Thursday.

Jamal Mohammed Ahmad Ali Badawi, who is wanted by the FBI, was convicted in 2004 of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the Cole bombing in the Yemeni port of Aden. He received a death sentence that was commuted to 15 years in prison.

He and 22 others, mostly Al Qaeda fighters, escaped from prison last year. But Badawi was granted his freedom after turning himself in 15 days ago and pledging loyalty to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Witnesses said Badawi was receiving well-wishers at his home in Aden.

Astroturf: IVAW Again

[Grim]

Yeah, they're at it again.