War blows $60bn hole in US plan for military

[emad]

Times
From Tim Reid and Roland Watson in Washington




THE cost of the Iraq war has forced Donald Rumsfeld to slash plans for a high-tech military of the future in order to focus on the more mundane and urgent task of providing his present-day US Army with tanks and body armour.

The rising cost of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with a record US budget deficit, has forced the US Defence Secretary to make nearly $60 billion (£31.8 billion) in cuts to advanced weapons programmes for the US Air Force and US Navy, and even to President Bush’s cherished missile defence programme, while increasing US Army spending.

An internal defence budget proposal for 2006 recommends that the cuts take place over six years. The programmes most affected are for fighter aircraft and new warships, once seen by Mr Rumsfeld as the future of the American military. They include the next generation of nuclear submarines, a stealth navy destroyer and an advanced air force fighter jet.

In contrast, increases for ground forces, which he had hoped would become less relevant for the 21st-century US military, are to soak up $25 billion more Pentagon spending than had been anticipated. Pentagon officials said that the shift had been forced on them by the military costs of Iraq and Afghanistan, which are running at $5 billion a month.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1427668,00.html

[UpInArms]

1. awwwww - won't that piss all those

PNACers off?

:nopity:

This stupid war has blown a hole in the lives of countless, a hole in the treasury of this country, a hole in the hearts of millions, a hole in the credibility of the United States and a hole in the hopes for any peace for the foreseeable lifetimes of generations.

[clem_c_rock]

11. Amen - this tiny handful of people...

Have changed the world forever and made our existence perilous beyond words

[seasat]

2. Why they must hate the military.

They're cutting necessary weapons systems just like John Kerry (and Dick Cheney and most Republicans). :o

[iam]

3. Why isn't the bush* admin

being accused of gutting the military like every Democrat who proposes military budget cuts?

[reprobate]

6. Why aren't they being accused by whom?

Remember, they *own* the media, and they either own the dem leadership or have them so afraid to speak up they just sit on their hands and nod in aggreemtn to whatever the repugs want.

[girl gone mad]

10. And remember how the constant cry under Clinton..

was that he had stretched the military too thin?

Funny that now, when the military is actually spread too thin, there's hardly a peep.

[leftchick]

4. the "mundane" task of keeping our soldiers alive?

did rummy write this himself?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. These guys are breaking the bank...

With their Excellent Military Adventure.

There will be repercussions.

"Ass, gas or grass, nobody rides for free"- Old Biker Saying

[OneBlueSky]

7. have they ever done a cost/benefit analysis of this war? . . .

we know what the costs are -- $200 billion or so and climbing, over 1300 American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, an insurgency growing geometrically, etc. . .

what are the offsetting benefits? . . . what are we gaining from this war that justifies these horrendous costs? . . . have these people done even this most basic assessment of their little war? . . .

[Redstone]

8. They don't NEED to do "even a basic assessment,"

because they're always right about everything, and never make mistakes.

Isn't that what they've told us?

So why should they question their righteousness in bankrupting the treasury and murdering our children, brothers and sister, and mothers and fathers (we don't need to count all those dead Iraquis, because they're just brown people anyway)?

They're right, and that's that. Who are we to question them?

I have to go walk around for a while. These people make my blood pressure get way too high.

Redstone

[calimary]

12. We're providing booming times to grave-diggers, coffin-makers and

prosthetics designers/manufacturers. Wowee. Probably the makers of Kleenex are doing boffo business, too. Just look at all those nice, wet tears being generated out there!

[Been Fishing]

13. Halliburton and subs are making a fortune

also there is a little drop of oil to be soaked up.

[MichiganVote]

9. Let them eat 30 year old Humvee's