Category Archives: Pentagon

Rep. Dicks: “We Don’t Have Enough Bombers”

12 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by in Pentagon, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

The best Congress money can buy:

“A House-passed defense spending measure adds $100 million in funding to an Air Force bomber aircraft plan.  The increased funding at a time of budget crunching comes amid concern that Chinese or Russian missiles could down existing U.S. planes. The Air Force requested only $197 million for the bomber program.

“We don’t have enough bombers,” said House Appropriations Committee ranking member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), who is concerned about the small number of stealth U.S. bombers that could sneak into enemy airspace without being detected by enemy radar and surface-to-air missile systems.

[…]

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are expected to compete for what will be a lucrative contract to design, develop and build the new bombers.”

I’ll bet you would be shocked to find out that No. 1 on the appropriately named congressman’s list of contributors is Boeing. Number three is Lockheed Martin. Number five is Northrop Grumman.

Advertisement

Army’s $2.7 Billion Computing System Doesn’t Work

06 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in Afghanistan, budget, Iraq, Pentagon

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

By all means, let’s keep increasing the Defense budget, especially when it’s spent so wisely and effectively:

“The Army’s $2.7 billion computing system designed to share real-time intelligence with troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq has hurt, rather than helped, efforts to fight insurgents because it doesn’t work properly, several analysts who have used the system say.

The analysts’ comments mirror concerns raised by the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan and members of Congress over the past two years in an unsuccessful bid to get the Army to consider alternatives to its portion of the military’s Distributed Common Ground System, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

…[A]nalysts say DCGS-A was unable to perform simple analytical tasks. The system’s search tool made finding the reports difficult, and the software used to map the information was not compatible with the search software.

“You couldn’t share the data,” said one former Army intelligence officer who worked in Afghanistan and Iraq.

There were also problems with the hardware, with the system being prone to crashes and frequently going off-line, he and another former Army intelligence officer now working as a contractor in Afghanistan said.

“The laptops are turned on, but it doesn’t work,” the second former officer said. “There’s a lot of bugs in the workflow.”

What happened to this?

“President Barack Obama asked Congress to approve a record $708 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2011, but vowed to continue his drive to eliminate unnecessary, wasteful weapons programs.”

…”Even though the Department of Defense is exempt from the budget freeze, it’s not exempt from budget common sense,” Obama told reporters at the White House.”

A Milestone in Colossal Stupidity

27 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, Obama, Obama administration, Pentagon, war on terror

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Proving Santayana right, today marks a milestone in the Afghanistan quagmire. A milestone in colossal stupidity:

“On Saturday Nov. 27, the United States and its allies will reach a grim milestone: they will have been in Afghanistan a day longer than the Soviet Union had been when it completed its 1989 withdrawal.”

And the end is not in sight:

“Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell last week made clear that the 2014 date for an end to combat operations agreed by NATO was an “aspirational” deadline. And an Afghanistan progress report by the Pentagon to the U.S. Congress released Tuesday made clear that despite the Obama Administration’s “surge” of some 30,000 extra American soldiers into the war zone, progress has been modest and the insurgency continues to expand.”

2014? What happened to July 2011?

“…it appears as if President Obama isn’t prepared to cut his losses in the war and order a sharp drawdown of troops next July, when, at least according to his stated policy, US forces will begin to leave Afghanistan. Worse, it looks like the much anticipated December 2010 presidential review of war policy is being reduced to a rubber-stamp approval of General David Petraeus’s counterinsurgency scheme.

…Obama is increasingly in harmony with Petraeus. The president and the general are “meshing well, advisers say,” they reported, adding that the president strikes a “deferential tone” toward Petraeus even though Petraeus “has made clear that he opposes a rapid pullout of troops from Afghanistan beginning next July.”

A “deferential tone?” Who’s in charge here? That would be a rhetorical question, the answer is obvious.

“When asked by a reporter about the US “exit strategy” for Afghanistan, the senior defense official took issue with the term. “We don’t have an exit strategy. We have a transition strategy. The US commitment to Afghanistan is continuing, enduring, and long-lasting.”

A “transition” that, according to the former number two U.N. diplomat in Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith, could take 100 years:

“We’re talking about something that will take 100 years, generations,” says Galbraith, “You can equip them. You can provide some training, but you can’t make them honest. You can’t make them literate. You can’t make them committed to the notions of policing that we have in the West,” he says.”

Once again, we’ve been here before. Apparently the lesson was unlearned. More on the Pentagon’s report to Congress, with the appropriate editing inserted:

“The Pentagon’s semiannual report to Congress on the war in Vietnam Afghanistan paints a picture of a country where corruption remains rampant, violence has increased, and a well-funded Vietcong Taliban insurgency continues to make troubling gains.

The report, “Progress Toward Security and Stability in Vietnam Afghanistan,” which was released this week, actually cites little in the way of progress in the war, a major US undertaking that is rapidly losing popular support among Americans and threatens to become a political burden on President Johnson Obama.”

The song remains the same, only the names have changed.

Taliban Hired for Security at U.S. Bases in Afghanistan

08 Friday Oct 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, Congress, Pentagon, war on terror

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

On the day that marked the beginning of the 10th year of the Afghani-Nam cluster(bleep) the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Carl Levin (D-MI), released the results of an investigation which found that private security forces hired by the Pentagon to protect our military bases there include Taliban warlords and people with ties to Iran.

“Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban, criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American military bases in Afghanistan, exposing United States soldiers to surprise attack and confounding the fight against insurgents, according to a Senate investigation.

The Pentagon’s oversight of the Afghan guards is virtually nonexistent, allowing local security deals among American military commanders, Western contracting companies and Afghan warlords who are closely connected to the violent insurgency, according to the report by investigators on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

[…]

There are more than 26,000 private security employees in Afghanistan, and 90 percent of them are working under United States government contracts or subcontracts. Almost all are tied to the militias of local warlords and other powerful Afghan figures outside the control of the American military or the Afghan government, the report found.”

But as usual, Congress loves to have investigations and release reports followed by nothing. Especially true when the findings involve the Pentagon, which is apparently a government unto itself, with an unlimited budget and unrestrained power.

“Levin did not indicate that he would seek any legislative fixes. The panel’s investigation likely will inform two Pentagon task forces that are looking into the problems.”

Letting the fox “look into problems” at the henhouse is always a good idea.

“Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan, earlier this month issued guidance on the use of contractors “that made it clear that all corrective actions, including terminating contracts and suspending and disbarring contractors, will be on the table,” Levin said.

Levin said that commanders in Afghanistan, with Petraeus in the lead, are committed to change the “status quo” of private security contracts in Afghanistan.”

I take it General Petraeus and Sen. Levin aren’t aware that the State Department recently awarded a 5-year, $10 billion contract to eight private companies for security in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the infamous Blackwater under another name.

But always looking on the bright side, Republicans on the committee “faulted the report for failure to acknowledge the positive impact of providing employment to Afghans.”

If only they were that interested in providing employment to Americans.

“Levin said…that his panel’s report underscores the need to “shut off the spigot” of U.S. money going into the “pockets of warlords.”

I know of one sure-fire way to “shut off the spigot,” Sen. Levin. Get the hell out of there. Now.

Drone Strike Kills 28 in Pakistan

22 Wednesday Sep 2010

Posted by in drone strikes, Pakistan, Pentagon, terrorism, war on terror

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

We have met the terrorists and they are us:

“Pakistan’s remote tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan are in a state of virtual panic tonight as US drones continue to loom in the air and three attacks against separate towns across the region killed at least 28 people and wounded an unknown number of others.

Officials have so far failed to identify any of the targets of the attacks, but reports from the ground suggest that one of the US drones attacked a funeral procession that was carried out for people killed in a previous attack.

Reports suggested that the targets hit were related to one of the militant factions which has an existing cease-fire with the Pakistani government, and it does not appear that any of the victims of the attacks were “high value” targets.”

Winning hearts and minds—one corpse at a time.

Where Are the Deficit Hawks on Pentagon Spending?

25 Thursday Mar 2010

Posted by in Afghanistan, budget, economy, Iraq, Pentagon, Politics, war on terror

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Think of what the reaction of the self-anointed deficit hawks in Washington would be to this headline in relation to any government spending not affiliated with the Pentagon:

“Cost of (insert name of program here) Will Be Double the Original Estimates”

Members of Congress would be stampeding to find a microphone and rail against wasteful government spending. The Tea Party movement would take to the streets in protest. Radio and TV talkers would be ranting about “stealing money from our children and grandchildren.” So why no outcry over this:

“Since 2001, when an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was expected to cost an already hefty $50 million, the plane’s cost has soared into the stratosphere…The estimated cost today is $113 million per plane.  Yes, that’s per plane….It’s also 2 ½ years behind schedule.  Keep in mind that the Marines, the Air Force, and the Navy are planning to buy a combined 2,450 of them for what’s now an eye-popping $323 billion.”

That’s assuming there are no more cost overruns. Quite a stretch, to say the least.

“In other words, if all goes well from here (an unlikely possibility), a single future weapons system is now estimated to cost the American taxpayer almost one-third of what the Obama administration’s health-care plan is expected to cost over a decade.”

Where are Sens. Nelson, Landrieu, and Lincoln? Where are Sen. McConnell, Rep. Boehner and the born-again fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party? Strangely silent. To his albeit limited credit, Sen. McCain offered this scathing rebuke (sarcasm intended) :

“The taxpayers are a little tired of this. I can’t say that I can blame them.”

Strong stuff there, huh?