Wednesday, February 8

Tom's take on the QDR

Tom's take on the QDR

In short: all of the services and contractors (and districts/states and the Congress-members) get some of what they want. The people who don't get what they want are those who want fiscal responsibility. The Bush Administration is basically saying 'We have to spend extra because we're at war.' and then they don't have to make the hard choices. What they should do is drastically reduce those big, expensive weapons systems and get this thing under control. But, like to many other fiscal decisions in this administration, they're putting off those hard choices for the future. We get to pay for it later, with interest. A quote from Tom:

So, for now, "A's" all around with a huge "F" for sustainability. It is unsustainable to buy a Big War force in a Small War world. It is unsustainable to expect the Chinese to pay for a Big War force [through their significant purchasing of our sovereign debt] directed primarily against them. It is unsustainable to deny ourselves the aid of major allies, to include China most of all (that body shop of a military). It is unsustainable not to do a better job gaining acceptance of our new security rule sets in this Long War because we're so highhanded and arrogant in our application.

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