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Edited on Sun Jan-07-07 09:38 AM by Capt_Nemo
Since the Democratic party has retaken the Houses of Congress I have heard many here at the DU discussing about what a poster today has called the "Democratic dilemma", namely that cutting fuds for troop deployements in Iraq would bring immediately a fierce attack from the Republicans blaming the loss of this unwinnable war on the Democratic policies.
Unfortunately decades of propaganda in the schools and in the media have brainwashed many americans into believing this (among others) aspect of american exceptionalism: american invincibility. So, for many voters, if america loses its the fault of those that didn't push hard enough to win, since american victory is an unquestionable postulate. They will rather believe the myth than face decades of ugly truths about US foreign policy, and about the decadence of their nation.
Well I think there is a pretty straightforward way out of this dilemma, and before I start I will tell you that it will imply giving to Bush the "surge" that he wants, and consequentely many americans and many more iraqis will die as a consequence. But the way some are advocating to spare those lives may imperil many, many more if the consequence of cutting the funding will be getting a nutjob like John MacCain into the WH come 2008.
So what could be done in order to pressure the WH to give up on their delusions of victory in Iraq? I say, hit them where it hurts the most, The pockets of the military industrial complex!
How to do it?
1. Declare an inflation ajusted freeze on the defense budget.
2. Give Bush everything he wants in terms of escalating the ground war and increasing the size of the Army.
3. The extra spending associated with escalating the ground war and increasing the size of the Army will be cut from the procurement and R&D for advanced weapon systems. For example:
3. Every extra $140 Million for his surge and recruitment drive will be one less F-22 he buys to LockMart, and 3 less F/A-18E he buys to Boeing.
4. Every extra $2 Billion for his surge and recruitment drive will be one less Virginia Class sub he buys to Electric Boat Co., and 2 less Arleigh Burk destroyers he buys to Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding.
5. Cut across every R&D program to find money for surge and recruitment while maintainig the freeze on the budget. Cut on Missile Defense, Cut on DDX destroyers, Cut on CVX carriers, cut on F-35, cut on UCAVs, cut, cut, cut, cut!!! The impact will not be very strong on each individual program but the cummulative effect of cutting acrross the board will be felt by the contractors that are allways the same half a dozen suspects: LockMart, Boeing, NorthGrumm, Raytheon, General Electric, Textron well, maybe a few more, but you get the idea...
I believe that using such strategy Democrats would force the aerospace/defense contractors to confront Bush/Cheney with another dilemma!
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