Scott St. Clair: Obama defense cuts – Phone it in from now on?

January 14, 2012

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President Obama recently announced some severe cuts to the Pentagon budget. In the neighborhood of a half-trillion dollars will be slashed through downsizing of mostly army and Marine Corps troop strength, increased reliance on unmanned technology such as drones and strategic re-prioritization.

Don’t know about you, but this makes me uneasy and wondering how vulnerable the United States will become. And I’m not the only one.


Consider what’s still on the national-defense radar: The Chinese pretty much own us lock, stock and barrel, and now they’re making a run at us in the Pacific; Iran is run by a bunch of crazy people who’d like nothing more than to prove to the world – especially their new homeboy, Venezuala’s Hugo Chavez – how crazy they are; and new North Korean combination strongman, Chicago Bulls fan and party-hearty pre-diabetic fat boy, Kim Jong-un.
On, and let’s not forget our pals the Taliban in Afghanistan and sundry thugs de jour like Syria’s bad boy and homicidal president, Bashar Assad.
Sure, there’s room for economizing in the Defense Department budget. Do we need all those troops in Europe? Are there weapons systems for which the bang isn’t worth the buck?

But since the first and really only legitimate purpose of government is protecting the lives and property of its citizens, failing to do that in favor of subsidizing another Solyndra or tossing money down the Obamacare rathole is foolish. We won’t get far tossing EBT cards at a present or future enemy or tooling up to the front in a Chevy Volt all the while worried that it will catch fire.

After all, how effective will our troop be going into combat like this?
Or even worse, when our military effort ends up looking like this?
Scott St. Clair is a former investigative journalist with the Freedom Foundation. He now makes trouble in and blogs for the Victoria Taft blog from his home in New Jersey.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com