James Corum:The US Army Under Pressure – Does Obama Care?

The Aged P.com ^ | 21/07/10 | the Aged P

[sussex]

Military historian James Corum, writing in the UK Daily Telegraph, highlights the risks of trying to deter adversaries with military forces based on the model inherited from the massive cuts of the Clinton era.

[Frantzie]

It is a lot worse than that. S**di A**bia is in control in the US and to a lesser extent the UK. This is all about killing and humiliating American and NATO soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan for the entertainment of the King of S**di A**ia and Islam.

The Joint Chief cowards will not stand up to the usurper.

[ansel12]

This was unprecedented in American history. In every conflict since the colonial campaigns against the Indians, the Americans had increased the armed forces; defence came first because defeat was not an option

The Indian fighting army sure had to fight on the cheap, vastly outnumbered, often without food, sometimes inferior weapons, the Indian fighting army was so neglected by the east and congress, that congress forgot to pay them one year.

[gulfcoast6]

Yup. after we won the civil war we shared out knowledge of weapon's with the Yankees..................................

[humblegunner]

the Aged P

They make adult diapers for that.

[mbynack]

It seems to be a rule that the more missions the military gets, the less money they get to perform them. The same time the US is fighting two wars and rattling sabers in Iran and North Korea, the government decides to cut funding and reduce troop levels. It's already causing the military suicide rates to go up.

Every time we see this trend, the military has to cut spares, modernization, and advanced programs to meet the budget for fighting the wars. It takes 10 years to get the programs back where they were. You can't just increase the number of recruits and make up for the loss of huge numbers of NCOs and mid-level officers. Programs like the F-22 that are being cut are critical to the Air Superiority mission and the lack of assets will create problems years down the road.

Air Superiority is a key to the strategy of all the services. You can't effectively conduct ground operations if you don't control the sky over the battle field. Iraq found that out during Desert Storm. Every time they tried to mass their forces for an attack, the US would hit them from the air and destroy them. That's what would happen to us without Air Superiority.

[centurion316]

Here’s how Obama will deal with this problem:

Withdraw all forces from Iraq and Afghanistan
Drawdown in Korea, Europe, elsewhere in the World
Cut $1.1 Trillion from the Defense Budget
Reduce the size of the Army by ~200 thousand

Hope that the World will Change.

He is already floating this plan through surrogates like Barney Frank, Dana Priest, et al.

[The Sons of Liberty]

All 0bamao sees are the funds he could be frittering away on social programs to build his base.

I wonder how much longer military personnel will be able to tolerate serving tours in combat, returning home for a short period, and then returning to combat - the "rinse, lather, repeat" formula - how do you break out?.

[WLR]

We all want US Air Superiority.. The problem is the Air Force Flag Officers and Pilots want only the Pentultimate Fighters and Bombers. Further they use them to bomb a current crop of enemies which would be killed much more effectively with SkyRaiders and WartHogs..

Flying Billion Dollar Stealth Bombers 14,000 miles to bomb people living in mud huts and caves whose most sophisticated air grid at this time consists of a Mosquito Net over their Straw Cot..

Is Moronic at best in truth Malfeasant or worse.

Every time you see 3-4 flying Jihadis after a Hellfire or JDAM at $100k a pop plus the cost of the Aircraft realize that they are winning.. If there are only 3 Million active Jihadis (out of three billion) in the world.. we will be long broke at that rate before they are anywhere close to being dissuaded or defeated. W

[mbynack]

You're assuming that future wars will all be fought with people living in mud huts. The reason we can fly helos and warthogs in Iraq is because our F-15s and F-18s destroyed their air force in Desert Storm. People argue that the potential enemies don't have sophisticated aircraft. Enemy aircraft are only one of the threats faced by bombers and fighters. Almost every country in the world has access to modern anti aircraft defense systems. New SAMS have technologically caught up with the capabilities of the 36 year old design of the F-15 Eagle. Most people aren't even driving 36 year old cars, but you expect us to send our pilots into battle against modern aircraft and SAMS in airplanes older than most of the people flying them.

There is no such thing as a cheap air superiority fighter. They are some of the most sophisticated aircraft in the inventory. The equipment needs to withstand 10g turns, detect enemy fighters a hundred miles away, and be stealthy and agile. Each generation pushes the envelope of technology.

Two of our biggest threats right now are North Korea and Iran. North Korea has the technology of China behind it and Iran has been buying modern Russian planes and anti-aircraft systems.

The reason the Flag officers want the best aircraft that they can get is survivability. Our strategy doesn't count on sending waves of cheap aircraft and hoping a couple get through. We don't have a huge number of trained pilots to fly suicide missions against high value targets. Every one of the modern fighters and bombers we have has a crew of American servicemen on board. Their lives depend on the equipment they're flying. Stealth is expensive, but necessary if you want to see the airplanes come home.

[WLR]

I am concluding if We the US continue to spend $100,000 to kill a half dozen or less Jihadis with JDAM or Hellfire Missiles.. If we continue to waste money killing the Islamofacist enemy in onsies and twosies using the most expensive means..

When there are at least 3 million active Jihadis in the world...

WE WILL LOSE..

We need to stop training and outfitting our potential enemies.. no matter how much money we think we are making.
Selling F16s and M1 Tanks to any but our closest and most trusted long time allies is idiocy..We have placed Brigades of M1s in the hands of those committed for example to the destruction of Israel.. We have given what? a thousand? M60 Medium Tanks to Turkey... they used them to threaten US Forces in the Kurdistani Region of Iraq..

We sell advanced weapons untrustworthy “allies” and then our contractors use the possesion of such advanced weaponry to justify the purchase of ever decreasing numbers of ever more complex and expensive weapons systems.

We need to Retire 700 Generals and Admirals tomorrow..
20,000 Field Grade Officers in the Army. The US Generals and Admirals of WWII numbered around 300 to command 15-17 million men under arms. They did so successfully using shortwave radios, Morse Code Keys and Mechanical Cypher Machines.. Today we have an estimated 900 Generals and Admirals commanding 1/10 the men under arms 1.5 to 1.7 million.

We need to preserve our medium Tanks and Light Armored Personell Carriers not give them away or dump them into the ocean as a place for fish to fornicate.

We need to bring back proven platforms or their equivalent like the Prop Driven Skyraider.. Inexpensive and effective ground support aircraft.

Please take the time to read the below link.. It does an excellent job of explaining the bull crap that is going on..

I am for "hurting the feelings" of people who want to murder Americans.. I am for providing reasonable equipment to the troops assigned to the task..

Unless we rethink the way we fight and the equipment and material requirements we will lose not only this current fight but the next fight against a First Tier Nation State because we will not have enough resources economically nor enough equipment in terms of sheer numbers to win.

The Chinese will do the same to US that we did to the Germans.. The Germans made much better stuff than we did.. They were brilliant and innovative.. One German Super Tiger Tank could destroy 25 Shermans in a Fight... So we made sure we had 26 on hand and destroyed them instead.. The same was true for their Jet Fighters when we had nothing equivalent.. They were brilliant, innovative and arguably had the best equipment, they just could not afford enough of it to win.

Not a place I want the US to find itself.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175029

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/55204/john-hillen/defenses-death-spiral-the-increasing-irrelevance-of-more-spendin

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2010/01/f-35-versus-spinneys-death-spi.html

Forget Politics... this really is about Our Nation's Survival and as we have learned we have few friends Republi-Con or Demon-Crat Leaders alike who really have the interest of our nation and the people in their hearts.

W

[mbynack]

We have some common ground. I don't recall seeing any video of the Army using missiles on personnel. Most of what I've seen are videos of 20mm and 30mm cannons. Most of the time the Army saves the missiles for structures and vehicles. Still not the most economical exchange.

I disagree with your suggestion that we use anything but the best equipment. It takes years to train a fighter pilot and the Air Force figures it has millions invested in the training. The reason the Japanese lost the second world war is because they ran out of pilots. They had aircraft, but no one to fly them.

There were mission during WWII where the US sent out 600 aircraft and only 200 came back. It's an awful price to pay for saving money on equipment.

[Thunder 6]

That is an interesting theory. Do you have any supporting evidence?

regards,

[Frantzie]

Read up on the Muslim Brotherhood. They build all the mosques in the west for the Saudis. Hussein network is filled with MB, Hamas and Hezboolah sympathizers and agents. It is all about getting American soldiers killed. Leaking intel back to our enemies. Stupid americans watching TV empower Obama.

I was at a party and a lady was there with her son. He is friends of the neighbors son. The kid is going in the Marines. I felt sorry for him. Another dead body for the Saudi king and his employee in the white hut. Americans have no clue. The Joint Chiefs are clueless or collaborators.

[Frantzie]

I will post more details on how the Saudis contyrol law firms in the UK to stop ANY negative writing, books, articles about Islam, Saudis, Mohammed - you get slapped with a lwsuit by the best law firms in Britain. Blair and Murdoch were behind the Islamification of the UK.

Washington DC is owned by the Saudis. Think tanks, law firms, you name it. Ditto politicians around the western world. Why the USA? Because we have 4 to 5 times the energy they do. We are energy serfs and soon to be dhiminis in the USA.