Really?

Would you believe it if it came from FOXNEWS??? :roll:

FOXNews.com - U.S. Troops in Iraq Have Limited Body Armor - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

 

The F/A-18 was designed in the mid 1970's. It went into service in 1983, and while there have been a lot of upgrades over the years, there is only so much that can be done with the original airframe design which has not substantially changed.

Also while the F/A-18 is an excellent multi-mission aircraft it is not really an air superiority fighter which the F-14 and F-15's were/are. The F-14's have already been grounded due to age and the F-15's won't be far behind. The F-22 is what is suppose to replace those planes.

The USA is not the only country in the world designing new and better aircraft and putting them into service. If we simply rely on what we have because it is good enough today we are going to be in a world of hurt tomorrow.

If nothing else the wars we are currently fighting should have taught everyone is that you never know what the next war is going to be like and the only way that we can ensure victory while also providing the best odds for survivability for our service men and women is to give them the very best tools available and teach them how to use them in as many situations as possible. We can't do that with any kind of "we have enough" attitude.

The most expensive army in the world is the one that comes in second place.

 

Yes I would, hobo.

Ya know, before my brother-in-law left, he showed our family that armor suit. I put on that armor suit. My gosh! I wouldn't want to go hunting in that thing. Just imagine having a cinder block on your head. That's what the helmet felt like. The plates in the vest looked like they were 1" thick. Looked kinda like thigh pads in football pants, but bigger. I would imagine those plates would be good to bop someone on the head, if they tried to break into your truck.

 

GH the F-18 is a Devirative of the F-17 Cobra the plane that LOST the lightweight fighter competiation to the F-16 both of which were designed in the 70's. Now both planes are approaching 40 years old and YOU are wanting them to keep flying and FIGHTING what do you think they are capable of flying forever. The F-15 has severe issues with metal Fatigue and last year had a 6G turn limit put on it unless in a combat situation in an effort to extend what little life they have remaining. The F-16 is restricted to 6G also for the same reason. The F-18 is the only plane the Navy uses which opens up the Carriers to attack simply beacuse the F-014 was the only plane that carried the Phoenix missle that could attack and KILL at over 100 miles away the Aamram has a range of only 40 max. 60 miles could mean the differance of losing a 9 Billion dollar Nimitz class Carrier and over 5000 men.

 

The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.

From a budget of $25 million. Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)

Less money for training != ending the entire program.

Obama took $2 million of the FFDO's $25 million budget and reallocated it. This would mean that the FFDO has been reduced to its original FY 2003 operating budget of only $23 million instead of getting the $50 million they wanted.

This is not great, but it's not the super secret killing of the whole program that this is being made out to be.

http://republicans.transportation.ho...-08-Prater.pdf

 

Bush diverted delivery of top of the line flak jackets to "coalition" partners to encourage their MINIMAL support to deflect criticism that we were "going it alone." He sacrificed American lives for the lives of troops from other countries who weren't even REALLY on the front lines.

This is NOT true. Congress gave Bush a blank check for the war against Terrorism, after being sold a bill of goods as to why we must invade Iraq. Bush squandered much of this money on NO BID contracts to Cheney's former employer Halliburton. The EXCUSE for this was that no other company could ramp up fast enough to provide the services. I don't recall THIS being the case immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Would THIS be the "rubber stamp" REPUBLICON controlled congress that Bush enjoyed for all but the last two years of his dictatorship?

I BELIEVE the numbers are available as to how many Americans lost their lives AFTER the "mission accomplished" fiasco. I believe it is something like 90 percent! It was NOT the lack of "supplies" or funding that killed them. It was the lack of reinforcements and force strength! The "surge" was nothing more than a reinforcement of "force stregnth" that was LACKING in the Bush invasion plan.

So, you would be unaware that Obama is increasing the number of our military? Or their pay? The main purpose of the former being to relieve the burden of their constant, and UNCONSITUTIONAL redeployment and "stop loss" based conscription?