Wasting Money Buying Over Engineered Aircraft

The article linked below is about how over engineered aircraft are wasting money when it comes to combat effectiveness. The whole concept of one aircraft, the F-35, for the Air Force, Navy and Marines guaranteed engineering delays and huge cost overruns. The Marines' requirement for short takeoff vertical landing required a much bulkier and heavier airframe that makes other services' models much less maneuverable. I remember that the F-111 was originally supposed to be a fighter both the Navy and the Air Force would use for both interception and tactical bombing. It ended up as a costly fiasco, which ultimately saw action only with the Air Force and only as a bomber. We should have remembered Robert McNamara's F-111 project was not the panacea that he promised. Instead, we repeated the mistake with the F-35 project.

The author mentions that for the price of one F-35, we could buy a small single purpose air to air fighter, and a single purpose ground attack bomber like the A-10 Warthog. The maintenance and flying costs of the combination would also be far lower that the F-35 and the mission readiness rate would be far higher. The Pentagon believes, almost religiously, that every airplane they buy has to be multipurpose. That's why the Air Force is trying to retire the A-10, because it only does ground attack. The fact that it does ground attack better than any other airplane we have in the inventory or plan to purchase is not enough to save the A-10, since it only does one thing. My solution is to give the A-10 in particular and the close air support mission in general to the US Army. They really appreciate the capabilities of the A-10.

I know this would require a change in the law. The Army lost almost all of its aircraft in a deal in 1948 that gave the newly established Air Force almost all current and future fixed wing aircraft. Currently, the Army can only operate helicopters as attack aircraft. But helicopters are a lot less capable and a lot more expensive to operate than "Warthogs." Congress should revoke the 1948 deal and give all the A-10 aircraft to the US Army. The Army should also be allowed to buy other fixed wing ground attack aircraft as needed in the future.

The author argues that while some stealth is worth it, super stealth is wasted on fighters because most air to air engagements are dogfights within visual range. Stealth only fools radar, not optics. Less stealth would be both cheaper to buy and cheaper to maintain.

The author's historical reference at the beginning of the article really backs up his point about overly sophisticated US aircraft. He mentions that the last air to ground casualties inflicted on US ground forces were inflicted by a PO-2 biplane. The PO-2 was a Soviet training, ground attack and crop dusting airplane made of wood and fabric. It had so little metal and flew so low and slow that US night fighters could not find it with radar.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418430/what-if-worlds-most-expensive-fighter-planes-cant-defeat-our-enemies-mike-fredenburg

States Should Recognize Marriages From Other States

Marriage is left to the states under the Constitution and it should stay that way. The fix for the same sex marriage problem is to apply standard doctrine on marriages to same sex marriages. States should have to recognize as valid marriages performed in other states even if those marriages could not be legally performed in their own state. This leaves the definition of marriage to the states, and leaves marriage law to legislatures where it belongs. It allows states who don't want gay marriage to forbid it within their state, but allows gay people to go to another state to get married. Since it is a decision that follows precedent, Conservatives will grumble but not become enraged. Just like in the Defense of Marriage Act case, Conservatives will find losing acceptable because they will lose based on states' rights. Over time everybody will get used to the idea and it will cease to be a big deal.

Ruling that the 14th Amendment requires states to allow same sex marriage is ridiculous. There is no way the 14th Amendment says anything about same sex marriage. At the time it was ratified, homosexual acts were illegal. Ruling in this fashion will create stubborn resentment which will last for years, just like the Roe v Wade ruling did. It will be based on what the justices want the law to be rather than what the law is. And given the availability of a less intrusive solution of requiring the recognition of marriages performed in other states, it's a completely unnecessary abuse of power. Further, it will remove the predictability of what the law is. The Constitution will become something with a meaning that can radically change on any given day in the Supreme Court. It will move us radically closer to the rule of men, not the rule of laws.

The 14th Amendment was passed specifically to prevent segregation and anti-miscegenation laws. Using it for same sex marriage is ridiculous. It does not apply. I realize it's tempting to get everything you want from the Supremes without having to do the hard work of winning state by state. But anything you win in the Supreme Court with no consistent reason, is something you can lose the same way. The whole reason liberals are so nervous every time a new Supreme Court Justice is appointed is because Roe v Wade was based on nothing but what the court at the time wanted the law to be. It could be easily reversed at any time and everyone knows it. Big changes like this should be done legislatively. It takes longer, but it gains wider acceptance and it lasts longer as a result. Gay marriage is winning the argument politically. You don't need a shortcut.

When the 14th Amendment was adopted, homosexual acts were illegal. To interpret the ratification of the 14th Amendment as legalizing gay marriage is ridiculous. It was not the intent of the people who ratified it. Religion has nothing to do with it. (I'm a Congregationalist who goes to church once a year for Easter.) I'm in favor of gay marriage. I am not in favor of the Supreme Court inventing new ways to interpret the Constitution and its amendments that the original ratifiers would find unbelievable. If the Supreme Court can bend the 14th Amendment to that extent, then they can bend the entire Constitution in whatever direction they want with no checks or balances. Since gay marriage is winning anyway, why do we need to use the 14th Amendment in outlandish fashion when there are easier ways to get there which will leave the Constitution with some meaning? Big changes like this are what legislature are designed for.

Liberal Vietnam Narrative Is Orwellian Lie

The Vietnam War article linked below, like many articles this week, is Orwellian in that it edits the past in order to control the future. It states as fact all of the self-serving left wing lies about the Vietnam War, including the whopper that mass executions did not occur.

We did not start the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese started the war after agreeing to a peace treaty and partition, then ignoring what they agreed to and starting a guerrilla war in South Vietnam. We became involved as part of the containment strategy of the time. There is no way we could have avoided involvement given the prevailing attitudes about Communist expansionism. As the war progressed, we were trying to prevent a bloodbath that would result from a complete Communist takeover in Indochina. Given the ultimate outcome, people like me who expected the Communists to kill thousands were proved to be overly optimistic. They killed millions.

We signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 and guaranteed the South Vietnamese that we would support them if the North broke the agreement. Then Congress, dominated by Democrats, cut 75% of the military aid to South Vietnam. Once the invasion from the North started, Congress outlawed any US air support. We did not support the South Vietnamese at all.

The Communist Khmer Rouge killed 2 million Cambodians. The Communists in Vietnam and Laos killed several hundred thousand people. About 2 million people were placed in forced labor camps called "reeducation" camps in Vietnam. About 2 million Vietnamese fled Vietnam in leaky boats to escape the persecution and slaughter. Many drowned when their boats sank before reaching safety.
About 10 times more people died after the war was officially over than died during the war.

The Antiwar Crowd never even noticed the slaughter the success of their protests caused. They are proud to this day of their successful effort to stop the war, or more precisely the American involvement in the war. These same folks are running US foreign policy right now, with 200,000 deaths in Syria alone and still counting. As a Vietnam Era veteran who as an ROTC cadet got called a trained killer and spit at a lot, I am tired of ignorant leftists calling Vietnam a meaningless war or a failure from the start. It was meaningless only in the sense that American leftists ignored the bloody disastrous results for self-serving reasons. It was a failure because the left wanted it to fail. They wanted a peace dividend to spend buying votes domestically, no matter how many Asians got killed in the process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...

When challenged on post Vietnam War events, liberal responses fail to address the post war deaths and refugees. All they want to talk about is American war crimes.

The Vietnam War Crimes Working Group found 320 war crimes after examining all the evidence. Vietnam Veterans Against the War, including especially John Kerry, are liars who promoted the fiction that everyone in uniform committed war crimes routinely, including people like me who never left the US and in my entire military career fired only 72 rounds from a .38 caliber pistol at a target. There's a reason Mr. Kerry got "Swift Boated." Here's a link for the war crimes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...

The president who escalated the war to over 500,000 US soldiers was Lyndon Johnson, D. Texas. He did this while lying, repeatedly promising that he would send no more troops to Vietnam while the troops were boarding ships to go there. The description "credibility gap" was invented for him. I know he's a Great Society and Civil Rights Act hero, but it's Orwellian to try to blame Richard Nixon for Lyndon Johnson's escalations.

Liberals are still apologists for Communist genocide. Their entire effort is a red herring lie to distract attention from the bloody results of leftist folly. Liberals don't care about the victims because they were Asians so they don't count, and because the perpetrators were Communists and liberals have no enemies on the left.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/40-years-later-will-end-games-iraq-and-afghanistan-follow-vietnam-playbook

US Strategy So Complex, It's Incoherent

The US Middle East strategy is so complex, it's incoherent. Our Dear Leader is making it up as he goes along. Barry the Brilliant's tilt towards Iran was meant to win us an arms control treaty. Nothing else mattered. And we are so close! Just a few more days and we can wrap it all up! Sure. In the meantime we have a mess where the US provided close air support for the Iranian Quds Force militias in Iraq, while we provide intelligence to the Saudis so they can attack an Iranian Quds Force militia in Yemen.

For those of you not familiar with the Quds Force, it's the part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard responsible for sponsoring terrorism and paramilitary organizations in foreign countries. The Quds Force has managed to combine the less attractive aspects of the German SS and the Russian KGB with numerous terrorist bombings. The Shi'ite militias that just took Tikrit, Iraq, after helpful US air strikes are run by Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force. He had his picture taken in several places all over Iraq, including near Tikrit. He was touring Iraq like he owned the place, because he does. The Quds Force militias are the friendly folks who planted the deadliest roadside bombs that killed and maimed hundreds of Americans during the Iraq War. If you think supporting Quds Force militias is a popular thing to do in US military circles then you will believe almost anything the Smartest President Ever says.

In the meantime, we are helping our friends the Saudis and the Egyptians with their Yemen problems. The Yemen problems are from Houthi militia trained and supplied by the Quds Force. In military terms, sanitized for a family publication, this is a cluster foul up. To believe the Middle East situation was the result of some grand master plan, a military analyst would need a ton of Maui Wowie consumed in the company of your buddy Jose Cuervo.

The only good thing to come out of it is that the Saudis and Israelis are so scared of the Iranians that they are negotiating quietly on military cooperation with each other. That fact alone says a lot about how bad things are.