The GOP will just ignore the top military brass, like theyve always done.

fta "The closest land war plausible for the U.S. would be on the Korean peninsula" because of North Korea's instability, Thomson said in an interview.

Not according to tonight's debate, Mr. Thomson. It's going to be an Iraq/Iran double play.

The US would have no reason to get involved in a land war in Korea. They can provide all kinds of support to the South Korean Army without having our soldiers in direct combat.

The chicken fajita MRE is the best.

Weaver95: Remember - the GOP considers downsizing the military to be heresy and quite possibly terrorism. so this puts them in an interesting quandary...

Also remember that the same GOP who won't agree to cut a military that costs more than the rest of the worlds' militaries combined tells you that universal healthcare would cost too much.

X-Wings? That would imply that the expensive crap they're buying is actually an improvement over the older technology and will actually be a worthwhile long-term investment due to the general civilian applications of the new technology they're developing. None of which is even remotely true. They'd do better to take existing vehicles and just lash stacks of dollar bills around the vulnerable spots as ablative armor.

video man: Too bad. Congressmen aren't going to be satisfied until the US has a fleet of X-Wing fighters.

Unless its a Republican admin ...

Then its a Deathstar.

A Terrible Human: I'll be satisfied when there isn't a need for X-Wing fighters.

The Russians are working on a Death Star and you know it.

We also have to get to work on our midichlorian enhancement program.

Outshined_One: A Terrible Human: I'll be satisfied when there isn't a need for X-Wing fighters.

The Russians are working on a Death Star and you know it.

We also have to get to work on our midichlorian enhancement program.

Don't remind me that "The Force" is manifested through "intelligent" single-celled organisms that infest a person. Ugh, I would rather it be hokey mystical than outright ludicrous.

There'll never be a land war on the Korean Peninsula unless we start it. They will never get through the DMZ and by the time they started trying cluster bombs would be raining down on them.

Meh, we heard all this "leaner" military stuff under the Bush administration. What it really boils down to, by the time everyone in the military gets their say, congressmen push funding for their district, and defense lobbyists make sure they still get their cut, is that the military continues to get funding for a huge conventional army *and* all the new toys they want for some smaller unconventional units.

A Dark Evil Omen: X-Wings? That would imply that the expensive crap they're buying is actually an improvement over the older technology and will actually be a worthwhile long-term investment due to the general civilian applications of the new technology they're developing.

Why not just eliminate the middleman? Put defense contractors to work on civilian projects. Everybody agrees that R&D is a smart and cost effective investment. So keep all the engineers, scientists and researchers busy, but shift 75% of their work to domestic civilian applications. Imagine a DARPA-designed municipal infrastructure project! Self-healing potholes? Sewer pipes that purify the water before it reaches the treatment plant? Playgrounds that capture the energy of the playing kids and use it to power the school? Solar-powered robot-tended rooftop vegetable gardens? Who knows? But it'd be fun to find out.

Notabunny:

Playgrounds that capture the energy of the playing kids and use it to power the school?.

That's old-tech, it's called a treadmill.

Notabunny: Why not just eliminate the middleman? Put defense contractors to work on civilian projects. Everybody agrees that R&D is a smart and cost effective investment. So keep all the engineers, scientists and researchers busy, but shift 75% of their work to domestic civilian applications. Imagine a DARPA-designed municipal infrastructure project! Self-healing potholes? Sewer pipes that purify the water before it reaches the treatment plant? Playgrounds that capture the energy of the playing kids and use it to power the school? Solar-powered robot-tended rooftop vegetable gardens? Who knows? But it'd be fun to find out.

While all those individual ideas are ridiculous (I assume intentionally) I personally wouldn't object if the GOP made employing the same contractors a condition of swapping funding from defense to areas that are actually useful. While the expertise doesn't transfer 1-to-1 for every company, getting some legit civilian patents under the licensing hands of the feds actually sounds pretty good. Maybe they can pre-squat all the software/trivial hardware electronics patents and solve two problems at once.

Can't we return this to the manned space race? If we are going to waste out money, why not at least go to Mars. It'll be expensive, but less than wars with lower death counts. Plus there are millions of parts in a space vehicle. We can give each of the 435 house members a factory in their district with their name on it making parts for the Mars vechicle, and two more factories per state for the Senators. Every Congressman can sign their name on a plaque that we'll place on Mars.

It'll be cheaper than our large scale wars and give us the technology for a robust space tourism industry.

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: Meh, we heard all this "leaner" military stuff under the Bush administration. What it really boils down to, by the time everyone in the military gets their say, congressmen push funding for their district, and defense lobbyists make sure they still get their cut, is that the military continues to get funding for a huge conventional army *and* all the new toys they want for some smaller unconventional units.

Yeah, leaner military crap just means "keep spending more money, but send fewer troops."

saintstryfe: There'll never be a land war on the Korean Peninsula unless we start it. They will never get through the DMZ and by the time they started trying cluster bombs would be raining down on them.

We won't start a war there because millions of people would die in the first round of artillery that is all aimed at Seoul. It is pretty much a hostage situation.

If NK wants they can easily make it through the DMZ, Gary Owen is just a speed bump, and by the time we start bombing them there will be friendly and civilian casualties (our plan is to bomb anyway).

It won't be pretty, hope it never happens :/

Why Yes I Am A Wizard: Outshined_One: A Terrible Human: I'll be satisfied when there isn't a need for X-Wing fighters.

The Russians are working on a Death Star and you know it.

We also have to get to work on our midichlorian enhancement program.

Don't remind me that "The Force" is manifested through "intelligent" single-celled organisms that infest a person. Ugh, I would rather it be hokey mystical than outright ludicrous.

It's been pretty well retconn'd that the midiclorians are an indicator of force talent, but not the cause*. I prefer it this way as well. Granted, this has gone on mostly though the literature, but it's also considered cannon because it goes through LucasBooks.

/*like measuring lipids or creatinine in your blood tests

So instead of cutting the bloated military budget, we're just going to stop it from growing quite as fast as it has been. The military profiteers win again.

Obama and the Pentagon are hoping to starve off sharp cuts for defense spending.

I think they meant stave, not starve.

I thought defense cuts were mandatory, automatically triggered by the failure to agree a budget?

Jisaw: The chicken fajita MRE is the best.

Lies. The chili macaroni is the best because, aside from being tasty, there's an increased probability of Skittles.

Bullshiat

video man: A Terrible Human: I'll be satisfied when there isn't a need for X-Wing fighters.

What about A-Wings?

I was thinking TIE fighters would be a better alternative.

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: Meh, we heard all this "leaner" military stuff under the Bush administration. What it really boils down to, by the time everyone in the military gets their say, congressmen push funding for their district, and defense lobbyists make sure they still get their cut, is that the military continues to get funding for a huge conventional army *and* all the new toys they want for some smaller unconventional units.

This happened in the early 90's too. The budget will get cut, but it will be just like taxes when middle income gets soaked and upper tiers pay less. The cuts will come out of the pockets of the soldiers with decreased benefits, pay and allowances and force reductions. Not to worry defense contractors, you'll still get your billions.

I would like to see a follow up article in a couple of years to compare which companies got hit with program cuts and where today's top defense personnel (civil and military) and congressional backers are working.

Too bad the only thing they do is cut out the actual troops and hire civillian contractors at 3x the price. Because different pot of money and all.

Maybe they could not spend at all cost? Burn all the fuel they have in Sept? Force us to buy from vendors that charge 4x reality?

naaaa cut out the people

It kind of seems like the days of massed ground forces are coming to a close.

Not that the infantry will disappear any time soon. Of course not. But just like the tank made trench warfare basically pointless modern advances make the massed tank and infantry assault kind of suicidal.

We can maintain a huge (and cheap) reserve of trained personnel on the home front by simply expanding the national guard, possibly making a few months service after highschool mandatory for everyone. It wouldn't be a particularly professional force but it would be cheap and massive should we ever need to draw up a massive conscript army in the future.

Seems like it would make more sense to invest in an infantry force a quarter the size of what we have now but spend twice as much per soldier to ensure they have the best recruits, best training, and best equipment.

The airforce and navy could probably due with some cuts as well although I'd be less stingy there as A) those are more important to guarding our interests abroad than a large infantry force and B) they're harder to build up again in a hurry should we need them (quicker to train some kid to point a gun than fly a jet).

And then of course if we get in a real bind we'll always have our nuclear deterrent.

Ideally I'd like to see a world where are allies in Asia and Europe handle their entire military needs on their own (they can afford it) and South America and Africa can deal with their own problems. Not Australia though, those bastards can't be left to their own devices.

watson.t.hamster: Not Australia though, those bastards can't be left to their own devices.

Especially since they have that arsenal of weird/deadly animals at their disposal.

Nice one, Subby.

Why Yes I Am A Wizard: video man: Too bad. Congressmen aren't going to be satisfied until the US has a fleet of X-Wing fighters.

Unless its a Republican admin ...

Then its a Deathstar.

This

video man: Too bad. Congressmen aren't going to be satisfied until the US has a fleet of X-Wing fighters.

This is ludicrous. What needs to happen is the Tie Defender will need its production costs reduced. I think its ion cannons can be thrown out. Something needs to be done so that they can be brought roughly within comparative cost of an X-wing.

Gyrfalcon: video man: Too bad. Congressmen aren't going to be satisfied until the US has a fleet of X-Wing fighters.

Dude, I myself will not be satisfied until we have a fleet of X-Wing fighters.

Skail: Jisaw: The chicken fajita MRE is the best.

Lies. The chili macaroni is the best because, aside from being tasty, there's an increased probability of Skittles.

I dunno, I thought the Tortellini was pretty good.

May I point out that it was the Rebel force that used the X-Wings, along with B-Wing and Y-Wing fighters. It seemed very ad-hoc.

The Empire with their Tie fighters were much more organized, and fleet maintenance was much simpler.

/We need Tie-fighters, not X-wings.