Topic: If Obama Wins

Gunner13 · July 10th, 2008

Yeah, you just have to love this interview/article. I find it revealing, although very disingenuous in places (since when to liberals care about earning “…the trust of men and women in uniform"?).

There are so many other things wrong with what he says that one hardly knows where to start. Things I have questions on:

1. What is the point of a 65,000-person increase in the Army and a 27,000-person increase in the Marine Corps while holding steady on the Navy and Air Force if you u are going to pull out of Iraq post haste?

2. How do you withdraw combat troops from Iraq at the rate of one or two brigades a month, as soon as he takes office and still maintain a viable security force on the ground and get all our stuff out (equipment, facilities, etc.)?

3. It would sure be nice if he had a clue about how to pay for all the nifty things he wants to do, but I don't think he understands how GWOT is funded. As noted in the article, and not discussed by Obama, emergency appropriations are not part of the budget, so there are no savings. I also think he seriously underestimates the need for recapitalizing the current force (the costs of recapitalizing the wheeled vehicle fleet alone are scary), let alone developing and buying new stuff.

4. I don’t understand Obama believes he would be a far better commander in chief than John McCain would. Have to tell you that working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for far less than 2 years and growing up traveling around the world makes him “…think I can be an effective commander in chief… .”. How does that give you any sense of the “…nature of both the transnational threats and challenges but also the opportunities that are going to determine our safety and security for the foreseeable future… .”? How does this compare to devoting your entire adult life to service in the US Navy and in the US Senate.

5. I understand diplomatic power, economic power, intellectual power and even scientific power, but what the heck is “…cultural power… .”?

Note that this interview was primarily for the Army Times, which is a trade publication for the US Army and DoD. So unless you are a subscriber, have access to the Early Bird (this appeared there too), get it passed to your from someone who does or it gets picked up by other media outlets (could be as Army Times and the other Military Times papers are run by Gannet I think), you may never see this article.

Most unfortunate.

July 10th, 2008
Gunner13	Yeah, you just have to love this interview/article. I find it revealing, although very disingenuous in places (since when to liberals care about earning “…the trust of men and women in uniform"?). There are so many other things wrong with what he says that one hardly knows where to start. Things I have questions on: 1. What is the point of a 65,000-person increase in the Army and a 27,000-person increase in the Marine Corps while holding steady on the Navy and Air Force if you u are going to pull out of Iraq post haste? 2. How do you withdraw combat troops from Iraq at the rate of one or two brigades a month, as soon as he takes office and still maintain a viable security force on the ground and get all our stuff out (equipment, facilities, etc.)? 3. It would sure be nice if he had a clue about how to pay for all the nifty things he wants to do, but I don't think he understands how GWOT is funded. As noted in the article, and not discussed by Obama, emergency appropriations are not part of the budget, so there are no savings. I also think he seriously underestimates the need for recapitalizing the current force (the costs of recapitalizing the wheeled vehicle fleet alone are scary), let alone developing and buying new stuff. 4. I don’t understand Obama believes he would be a far better commander in chief than John McCain would. Have to tell you that working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for far less than 2 years and growing up traveling around the world makes him “…think I can be an effective commander in chief… .”. How does that give you any sense of the “…nature of both the transnational threats and challenges but also the opportunities that are going to determine our safety and security for the foreseeable future… .”? How does this compare to devoting your entire adult life to service in the US Navy and in the US Senate. 5. I understand diplomatic power, economic power, intellectual power and even scientific power, but what the heck is “…cultural power… .”? Note that this interview was primarily for the Army Times, which is a trade publication for the US Army and DoD. So unless you are a subscriber, have access to the Early Bird (this appeared there too), get it passed to your from someone who does or it gets picked up by other media outlets (could be as Army Times and the other Military Times papers are run by Gannet I think), you may never see this article. Most unfortunate. I'd rather be a Soldier with a mule and mountain gun, than Knight of old, with spurs of gold, or Roman, Greek or Hun. For when there's trouble brewing, they always send for me! Mortui Non Mordent - Celeritas Et Accuratio