Obama's problems come home to roost.

[RandomGuy]

The military has been stretched dangerously thin since the last few years of the Bush administration. The problems got worse under Obama, and are definitely not going to be solved by the current criminally corrupt and inept administration.

Faulty Equipment, Lapsed Training, Repeated Warnings: How a Preventable Disaster Killed Six Marines

Marine commanders did not act on dozens of pleas for additional manpower, machinery and time. When a training exercise ended in death, leadership blamed the very men they had neglected.

Capt. Jahmar Resilard and Capt. Austin Smith were hurtling over the Pacific Ocean at 280 miles per hour. From inside the pit of their U.S. Marine Corps fighter jet, they kept their eyes on the hulking fuel tanker flying ahead. Off to their right, two Marines in a second jet assigned to Fighter Attack Squadron 242 did the same.

The moon was below the horizon. The lights on all three aircraft were turned off. In total darkness, 50 miles off the coast of Japan, the two jets were to stick their noses into fuel hoses trailing behind the tanker’s wings.

Even for the most prepared aviators, the training mission was not simple. Doing it at night made it even trickier. The night vision goggles fastened to their faces badly constricted how much they could see, like wearing binoculars to operate heavy equipment.

...

https://www.propublica.org/article/m...cific-resilard

[RandomGuy]

Years of Warnings, then Death and Disaster

How the Navy Failed its Sailors.

When Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin was elevated to lead the vaunted 7th Fleet in 2015, he expected it to be the pinnacle of his nearly four-decade Navy career. The fleet was the largest and most powerful in the world, and its role as one of America’s great protectors had new urgency. China was expanding into disputed waters. And Kim Jong-un was testing ballistic missiles in North Korea.

Aucoin was bred on such challenges. As a Navy aviator, he’d led the “Black Aces,” a squadron of F-14 Tomcats that in the late 1990s bombed targets in Kosovo.

But what he found with the 7th Fleet alarmed and angered him.

...

https://features.propublica.org/navy...-cause-mccain/

[Chumpette]

Trump

[rmt]

So what do you suggest, RG? Requests for more military spending will meet with resistance.

[DMC]

So increase military spending. That's a conservative goal.

[boutons_deux]

$700B / year

The totally corrupt MIC/military gets every billion that it wants and asks for

Ain't Obama's fault

America can't do anymore

[rmt]

Not the fault of Obama only - 'tis the nature of anything government-run - bloated, wasteful and inefficient - that's what you get when you're spending other people's money and not your own.

[ElNono]

Should just retire about half of the military, both equipment and personnel.

Don’t want ships sinking in the coast of Japan? Stop being the world police and don’t send ships there.

[Spurtacular]

So increase military spending. That's a conservative goal.

Not really. It's a warhawk goal shared by Democrats and Republicans alike.

[Spurtacular]

Should just retire about half of the military, both equipment and personnel.

Agree. But the equipment we do have should not be out of date sheeot.

[ElNono]

Agree. But the equipment we do have should not be out of date sheeot.

We spend gazillions in the greatest airplanes that can’t flight and the military doesn’t want. Military contractors cash in while vets end up living on foodstamps. That too is part of the welfare state.

[Spurtacular]

We spend gazillions in the greatest airplanes that can’t flight and the military doesn’t want. Military contractors cash in while vets end up living on foodstamps. That too is part of the welfare state.

It's a swamp.

[ElNono]

But then he’ll be called weak on terror, friend of Putin, etc etc etc

[DMC]

Should just retire about half of the military, both equipment and personnel.

Don’t want ships sinking in the coast of Japan? Stop being the world police and don’t send ships there.

This is a fact. Most of these incidents come from random patrols that are not needed, made just to fill a sortie or quota for some ship captain or admiral.

[DMC]

We spend gazillions in the greatest airplanes that can’t flight and the military doesn’t want. Military contractors cash in while vets end up living on foodstamps. That too is part of the welfare state.

I heard Rob O'Neill give a speech about the situation in Afghanistan, how it looked like a win until big, old government decided they wanted to turn towns into bases. This is old, decrepit thinking and it has infected the Pentagon for decades. Air superiority is a WWII concept. When has the US ever needed air superiority since WWII? Who are we going to dogfight against? I get being prepared for it, but there are more pressing military needs that could use that funding. Spending a trillion dollars to try to rebuild an entire country we cannot get any return on. It doesn't make any fiscal sense. If we could spend that here, we'd set this country up for the future instead of watching decay around us while high end aircraft fly useless sorties over air bases around the world.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Disband the military, dispose of all the US nukes, and let everyone in from the Middle East who wants to emigrate here. Fully open border policy. Also, US citizens that own homes must provide their spare bedrooms to make room for any and all immigrants to live while they are *getting it together*.

[Winehole23]

I heard Rob O'Neill give a speech about the situation in Afghanistan, how it looked like a win until big, old government decided they wanted to turn towns into bases

At any other time in our history the Afghanistan papers would be a big deal. Our government lied to us pretty much the whole way.

The thing to do was to declare victory and bring them home in 2003, alas, we were preparing to invade Iraq.

Why the are we still there?

[ElNono]

I heard Rob O'Neill give a speech about the situation in Afghanistan, how it looked like a win until big, old government decided they wanted to turn towns into bases. This is old, decrepit thinking and it has infected the Pentagon for decades. Air superiority is a WWII concept. When has the US ever needed air superiority since WWII? Who are we going to dogfight against? I get being prepared for it, but there are more pressing military needs that could use that funding. Spending a trillion dollars to try to rebuild an entire country we cannot get any return on. It doesn't make any fiscal sense. If we could spend that here, we'd set this country up for the future instead of watching decay around us while high end aircraft fly useless sorties over air bases around the world.

Did you read about the new hypersonic stuff from Russia? I’m not even sure we still have air superiority.

On the other hand, it’s not unexpected. We got fat and lazy after the Cold War, looking for trouble to keep feeding the monster.

[DMC]

Did you read about the new hypersonic stuff from Russia? I’m not even sure we still have air superiority.

On the other hand, it’s not unexpected. We got fat and lazy after the Cold War, looking for trouble to keep feeding the monster.

"The Monster" being the wealthy subset of power players/families that profit from these wars. They live lavish lifestyles and work together to ensure the clique remains at the top. The trickle down from them keeps lackeys doing their bidding and us peasants delivering the grain and our children for these lifestyle supporting trysts.

[DMC]

Disband the military, dispose of all the US nukes, and let everyone in from the Middle East who wants to emigrate here. Fully open border policy. Also, US citizens that own homes must provide their spare bedrooms to make room for any and all immigrants to live while they are *getting it together*.

Hush up, adults are talking.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Hush up, adults are talking.

You know that post was sarcasm, right?

[ElNono]

"The Monster" being the wealthy subset of power players/families that profit from these wars. They live lavish lifestyles and work together to ensure the clique remains at the top. The trickle down from them keeps lackeys doing their bidding and us peasants delivering the grain and our children for these lifestyle supporting trysts.

I’m not sure how they live their lives nor I care frankly. I care how they perpetuate a system of political and economic greed and corruption. That, directly or indirectly, affects me. There’s no trickle down as far as trickle down being a ‘lift all boats’ economic theory. They certainly need to deliver something at some point, as cheaply as they possible can, plus their lawyers and lobbying, the thing that keeps the Monster fed, are not free.

Ironic that purported free-market warriors are the first line of defense for this slime.

[DMC]

I’m not sure how they live their lives nor I care frankly. I care how they perpetuate a system of political and economic greed and corruption. That, directly or indirectly, affects me. There’s no trickle down as far as trickle down being a ‘lift all boats’ economic theory. They certainly need to deliver something at some point, as cheaply as they possible can, plus their lawyers and lobbying, the thing that keeps the Monster fed, are not free.

Ironic that purported free-market warriors are the first line of defense for this slime.

The trickle down affects those who do their immediate bidding. It doesn't float all boats. I am not talking about Reaganomics.

[Will Hunting]

Not really. It's a warhawk goal shared by Democrats and Republicans alike.

This. Bankrupting the country with a trillion dollars a year of defense spending has been a position both parties and the mainstream media have had for decades. The minute a candidate like Ron Paul or Tulsi runs on a platform of drastically reduced military spending he/she gets ostracized.

[Spurtacular]

This. Bankrupting the country with a trillion dollars a year of defense spending has been a position both parties and the mainstream media have had for decades. The minute a candidate like Ron Paul or Tulsi runs on a platform of drastically reduced military spending he/she gets ostracized.

And Chumpettes don't like either; I quite like them.