Streamlining the Military - Different Sauces for Goose and Gander

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's new defense budget proposes to reduce the size of our military to its lowest level since 1939. He makes noises about making the military more stream-lined, flexible and lethal, but one sees little of that in what we've seen so far. What we've seen so far in history is a pattern of Democrat presidents Carter, Clinton and Obama demoralizing and defunding the military every time they have the power to do so. After Carter's disaster in the desert during the Iran Hostage Crisis Clinton's record with the Black Hawk Down incident and the bombing of an aspirin factory, one waits with baited breath to see the results of Obama's gutting of the US military.

I notice the media have stopped counting the number of deaths in Afghanistan since this president came into office. I remember during the Bush years we used to get an ABC special every time we got another death toll magic number.

George W. Bush with the troops

The idea of stream-lining the military is not new. I remember President Bush proposed stream-lining the military at the very beginning of his administration. He proposed a massive re-evaluation of all systems and equipment and a careful, planned sharpening of the sword so to speak. He believed we should skip a generation of weapons and shifting funds from weapons development programs that would be practically obsolete when completed and used the funds to speed up technology, which would give us speed, flexibility, potency and survivability on the battlefields of the future. 

The Democrats howled like they’d been personally sandpapered and dipped in alcohol. The perfume princes (the guys already planning their post-service consulting careers) in the Pentagon hated it, but it would have given us a lean, affordable and extremely scary military a decade later. Of course, 9/11 intervened and prosecuting a war and squeezing the money for it out of the Democrats prevented his going ahead with his plans for upgrading the post-Clinton military, but it would have worked I think.

But the Democrats hate the military, except when they can use it to throw an international temper tantrum, raise taxes and get soldiers killed to no purpose (see Black Hawk Down and Vietnam). Unless we change the complexion of the Congress and presidency, we’re going to be in the same place the world was in 1939. President Obama with his confiding to Vladimir Putin that he'd be able to be more "flexible" after his reelection, his hand fluttering and confusing and ineffective responses in Syria, Libya and the Middle-East in general have only convinced the dictators of the world that they can act with impunity. That America is a paper tiger.

Vladimir Putin and Barak Obama have a meetin'.

Unfortunately for our future as a planet which does not glow in the dark, America possesses terrible and destructive weapons. Ask yourself, if someone mistook you for an intruder and were pointing a gun at you, which would you rather have on the other end of the gun: a trained soldier or police officer or a frightened girl who barely managed to release the safety on her 357 Magnum. Criminals know for certain who is more likely to shoot them accidentally and probably hit them where it's painful if at all. They also know who to speak calmly to and not make any threatening moves at because they will likely wind up dead if they do.

We have a frightened bunch of girls in the White House right now with the nuclear trigger in their handbags. At least that's the impression virtually everyone in the world has after Obama's World Apology Tour and his confusing tough talk and no follow-through foreign policy.

Neville Chamberlain and Adolph Hitler making "peace".

The current Russian incursion into Crimea and the limp-wristed response by this administration reminds me eerily of the Nazi incursion into the Sudetenland and Neville Chamberlain's sellout of the Sudetenlanders to Hitler for an illusory promise of “peace in our time”. Politicians who truly believe they are smarter than everyone else and can, through manipulation and charm, twist others to their will are every bit as dangerous and deluded as the dictators, tyrants and madmen who find them weak and stupid.

Just sayin’

Tom King

I remember President Bush proposed stream-lining the military, skipping a generation of weapons and shifting funds from weapons development programs that would be practically obsolete when completed to ones which would give us speed, flexibility, potency and survivability on the battlefields of the future. The Democrats howled like they’d been personally sandpapered and dipped in alcohol. The perfume princes (the guys already planning their post-service consulting careers) in the Pentagon hated it, but it would have given us a lean, affordable and extremely scary military a decade later. Of course, 9/11 intervened and prosecuting a war and squeezing the money for it out of the Democrats prevented his going ahead with his plans for upgrading the post-Clinton military, but it would have worked I think.
But the Democrats hate the military, except when they can use it to throw an international temper tantrum, raise taxes and get soldiers killed to no purpose (see Black Hawk Down and Vietnam). Unless we change the complexion of the Congress and presidency, we’re going to be in the same place the world was in 1939. The current Russian incursion into Crimea and the limp-wristed response by this administration reminds me of the Sudetenland and Neville Chamberlains sellout to Hitler for an illusory “peace in our time”.
Politicians who truly believe they are smarter than everyone else and can, through manipulation and charm can twist others to their will are every bit as dangerous and deluded as the dictators, tyrants and madmen who find them weak and stupid.
Just sayin’
Tom King
- See more at: http://www.ktbb.com/youtellme/2014/02/27/to-be-unready-for-war-is-to-invite-one/comment-page-1/#comment-13331

I remember President Bush proposed stream-lining the military, skipping a generation of weapons and shifting funds from weapons development programs that would be practically obsolete when completed to ones which would give us speed, flexibility, potency and survivability on the battlefields of the future. The Democrats howled like they’d been personally sandpapered and dipped in alcohol. The perfume princes (the guys already planning their post-service consulting careers) in the Pentagon hated it, but it would have given us a lean, affordable and extremely scary military a decade later. Of course, 9/11 intervened and prosecuting a war and squeezing the money for it out of the Democrats prevented his going ahead with his plans for upgrading the post-Clinton military, but it would have worked I think.
But the Democrats hate the military, except when they can use it to throw an international temper tantrum, raise taxes and get soldiers killed to no purpose (see Black Hawk Down and Vietnam). Unless we change the complexion of the Congress and presidency, we’re going to be in the same place the world was in 1939. The current Russian incursion into Crimea and the limp-wristed response by this administration reminds me of the Sudetenland and Neville Chamberlains sellout to Hitler for an illusory “peace in our time”.
Politicians who truly believe they are smarter than everyone else and can, through manipulation and charm can twist others to their will are every bit as dangerous and deluded as the dictators, tyrants and madmen who find them weak and stupid.
Just sayin’
Tom King
- See more at: http://www.ktbb.com/youtellme/2014/02/27/to-be-unready-for-war-is-to-invite-one/comment-page-1/#comment-13331

I remember President Bush proposed stream-lining the military, skipping a generation of weapons and shifting funds from weapons development programs that would be practically obsolete when completed to ones which would give us speed, flexibility, potency and survivability on the battlefields of the future. The Democrats howled like they’d been personally sandpapered and dipped in alcohol. The perfume princes (the guys already planning their post-service consulting careers) in the Pentagon hated it, but it would have given us a lean, affordable and extremely scary military a decade later. Of course, 9/11 intervened and prosecuting a war and squeezing the money for it out of the Democrats prevented his going ahead with his plans for upgrading the post-Clinton military, but it would have worked I think.
But the Democrats hate the military, except when they can use it to throw an international temper tantrum, raise taxes and get soldiers killed to no purpose (see Black Hawk Down and Vietnam). Unless we change the complexion of the Congress and presidency, we’re going to be in the same place the world was in 1939. The current Russian incursion into Crimea and the limp-wristed response by this administration reminds me of the Sudetenland and Neville Chamberlains sellout to Hitler for an illusory “peace in our time”.
Politicians who truly believe they are smarter than everyone else and can, through manipulation and charm can twist others to their will are every bit as dangerous and deluded as the dictators, tyrants and madmen who find them weak and stupid.
Just sayin’
Tom King
- See more at: http://www.ktbb.com/youtellme/2014/02/27/to-be-unready-for-war-is-to-invite-one/comment-page-1/#comment-13331

I remember President Bush proposed stream-lining the military, skipping a generation of weapons and shifting funds from weapons development programs that would be practically obsolete when completed to ones which would give us speed, flexibility, potency and survivability on the battlefields of the future. The Democrats howled like they’d been personally sandpapered and dipped in alcohol. The perfume princes (the guys already planning their post-service consulting careers) in the Pentagon hated it, but it would have given us a lean, affordable and extremely scary military a decade later. Of course, 9/11 intervened and prosecuting a war and squeezing the money for it out of the Democrats prevented his going ahead with his plans for upgrading the post-Clinton military, but it would have worked I think.
But the Democrats hate the military, except when they can use it to throw an international temper tantrum, raise taxes and get soldiers killed to no purpose (see Black Hawk Down and Vietnam). Unless we change the complexion of the Congress and presidency, we’re going to be in the same place the world was in 1939. The current Russian incursion into Crimea and the limp-wristed response by this administration reminds me of the Sudetenland and Neville Chamberlains sellout to Hitler for an illusory “peace in our time”.
Politicians who truly believe they are smarter than everyone else and can, through manipulation and charm can twist others to their will are every bit as dangerous and deluded as the dictators, tyrants and madmen who find them weak and stupid.
Just sayin’
Tom King
- See more at: http://www.ktbb.com/youtellme/2014/02/27/to-be-unready-for-war-is-to-invite-one/comment-page-1/#comment-13331

File This One Under "Out of the Frying Pan; Into the Fire!"

(c) 2012 by Tom King


(c) Yahoo News


Yahoo News reports that portly French actor Gerard Depardieu has fled France because of it's confiscatory 75% tax rate on wealthy French citizens - a rate that made Obama supporter Will Smith almost fall off his chair.  When a French interviewer asked him if he approved of higher tax rates for the wealthy. When he said yes, the interviewer asked if he approved of tax rates for the wealthy like France's, Will asked what the rate was and was told 75%, Will had a one word responce.....

"Damn!"

Depardieu has publicly fled France to avoid its brutal tax rate drawing ire from progressives everywhere who call him a traitor to his country and demand that he stand and take it in the wallet (for his love of France, of course).  Depardieu, meanwhile has approached Russia's Vladimir Putin asking for Russian citizenship. He's flown to Sochi where he's planning to meet Putin and apparently will recieve his Russian passport.

He may be out of the fat and into the fire, though.  Putin is fighting a battle with the Russian legislature over a 75% tax on the wealthy of their own. Putin may see bringing Depardieu to Russia as an "I told you so." move to bolster his argument against kicking up the tax rate.  Unfortunately, the Russian legislature has its share of communists and labor representatives who would like nothing better than to engage in some Soviet-style wealth redistribution.

Depardieu would do well to come up with a get-outta-Dodge plan just in case he needs to move again before the Russkies put the barbed wire back up along the borders.

It's interesting that Depardieu hasn't considered moving to the US.  Perhaps he's seen the handwriting on the American wall.  Now would be a good time to start an independent tax haven on some lovely island somewhere.  Think of all the actors that would soon be living in your new country. Legalize pot and cocaine and you'd have a thriving economy.

Tom King