I was looking through the President's agenda posted on The White House web site. I found his section on Defense somewhat different than I would have expected (certainly more different than what the far left is thinking I think):
A few of the items caught my attention:
Interesting that he plans to increase troops, not just on the ground but in overall military size. While this mentions nothing about a 'surge' strategy it made me wonder if additional troops means an expected increase in US presence in the middle east. There is mention of a full withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by 2010, but with Iraq out of the picture aren't we likely to a freeing up of troops?
I say this because of how the agenda mentions the deployment tempo. It would be my expectation that if the President were expecting a US withdrawal from Iraq he would not worry about troop levels and deployment cycles as we would be at peace or at least fighting only in Afghanistan.
There have been many rumors regarding possible changes in the acquisition of new airplanes (specifically delaying the roll out of the F-35 or significant reductions in the number of aircraft purchased). Much of what I have read seems to be more speculation rather than reporting on what the President said in his campaign. To my knowledge the President never talked about cutting the JSF or shrinking the program.
Expanded LCS program? Steering away from a carrier centric force? Obviously you cant abandon the carriers, but does this mean their role has been hedged a little bit?
I definitely am not trying to begin a political fire storm, rather just wanted to see if others saw what I saw in the Presidents agenda.
If this post is completely incoherent I apologize in advance, its late and the benadryl that I took for allergies just kicked in.
A few of the items caught my attention:
Interesting that he plans to increase troops, not just on the ground but in overall military size. While this mentions nothing about a 'surge' strategy it made me wonder if additional troops means an expected increase in US presence in the middle east. There is mention of a full withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by 2010, but with Iraq out of the picture aren't we likely to a freeing up of troops?
I say this because of how the agenda mentions the deployment tempo. It would be my expectation that if the President were expecting a US withdrawal from Iraq he would not worry about troop levels and deployment cycles as we would be at peace or at least fighting only in Afghanistan.
There have been many rumors regarding possible changes in the acquisition of new airplanes (specifically delaying the roll out of the F-35 or significant reductions in the number of aircraft purchased). Much of what I have read seems to be more speculation rather than reporting on what the President said in his campaign. To my knowledge the President never talked about cutting the JSF or shrinking the program.
Expanded LCS program? Steering away from a carrier centric force? Obviously you cant abandon the carriers, but does this mean their role has been hedged a little bit?
I definitely am not trying to begin a political fire storm, rather just wanted to see if others saw what I saw in the Presidents agenda.
If this post is completely incoherent I apologize in advance, its late and the benadryl that I took for allergies just kicked in.
