Fixing the Military

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18sun1.html?ref=opinion

The United States’ military is the world’s best. It is also in need of substantial repair. Two wars — the war of necessity in Afghanistan and President Bush’s disastrous war of choice in Iraq — have worn out soldiers and equipment at an unprecedented rate. So alarming is the deterioration that many military commanders say the country is unable to sustain the current operation in Iraq let alone face down future threats.

The next president’s most pressing challenge will be to plot an orderly exit from Iraq. The challenges will not end there. The turmoil Mr. Bush unleashed in Iraq, and the failure to defeat Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, have made the world more dangerous. Extremists will continue to threaten this country and its allies. The next president will also have to grapple with an increasingly powerful Iran with nuclear ambitions, a rising China, an assertive Russia, and a raft of unstable countries, from nuclear-armed Pakistan to Somalia.

What the country does not need is a military ready to refight the cold war or even the Iraq war. It needs a force that is both strong and flexible enough to meet a host of very different challenges.

Even after American troops come home there will be no peace dividend. But after wasting more than $600 billion in Iraq, the country cannot afford to keep writing the Pentagon blank checks. The next president and Congress will have to resist the demands of service chiefs and the blandishments of defense lobbyists and evaluate real needs, including canceling expensive programs that do not meet today’s threats or tomorrow’s.

[Doug.Goodall]

1. Bush is putting money into the pockets of the Military - Industrial Complex

It is his job. That is what Lockheed and General Dynamics paid good money for.

[Vincardog]

2. Lets start with making the military account for every penny it has received fro the last 7 years.

And make them account for every penny they want in the future, If they can not tell us how the money is spent they can't have any more.