OBAMA HATCHET MAN GATES GUTS U.S. MILITARY
AIM Report | By Diana West | March 3, 2010
During President Obama’s State of the Union address, after he made a pitch for putting active and open homosexuals into the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Robert Gates could be observed rising to his feet and applauding the President. The members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were also in the audience, did not rise or clap. Later, Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, fell into line, saying that he supported the Obama policy. “I have served with homosexuals since 1968,” Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Those homosexuals were, of course, in the closet and conducted their activities privately, not openly.
An analysis from Elaine Donnelly’s Center for Military Readiness finds that implementation of a plan to allow active and open homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals and even “transgendered” people into the military “would result in the voluntary or involuntary loss of thousands of personnel–many in communities, grades, and skills that are not easily replaceable. This would cripple the All-Volunteer Force at a time when we are at war. Personnel remaining would have to face more deployments and potential combat situations with fewer, less-skilled people.” These are people with traditional values who do not want to be in close quarters with–and sanction the behavior of–individuals engaging in immoral and perverted activities.
Male homosexuals have been prohibited from donating blood since 1977 because they are, “as a group, at increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and certain other infections that can be transmitted by transfusion,” according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
But Obama and Gates now want them in the U.S. military.
This wasn’t the first time that Gates, a hold-over from the George W. Bush Administration, had done Obama’s bidding. He is implementing Obama’s policy of killing production of the most advanced air superiority fighter in the U.S. inventory, the F-22 Raptor, the only known 5th generation fighter in service in the world. The Obama/Gates policy limits total procurement to just 187 of the advanced aircraft. Congress went along with the decision after Obama threatened to veto the entire defense bill if it included F-22 funds.
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) has argued that the termination of the program was a political decision, advised almost exclusively by Gates. He added, “The President’s position also runs counter to the long-standing program of record and ends F-22 production nearly 200 aircraft short of the Air Force requirement validated by over 30 air campaign studies. It takes American air superiority for granted and turns a blind eye to the mounting military capabilities of China and Russia, both of whom are developing Raptor-like fighters.”
Indeed, test flights for Russia’s in-development 5th generation fighter, referred to as the T-50, have just begun.
Fifth generation fighters are those introduced in 2005 onward, with the first being the F-22. Fifth generation design characteristics can vary, but generally include advanced avionics and stealth designs, such as radar absorbent materials and internal weapons bays, among others.
General John Corley, head of the Air Combat Command, had spoken out strongly against the plan to end production of the F-22. In a letter to Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, he wrote, “In my opinion, a fleet of 187 F-22’s puts execution of our current military national strategy at high risk in the near- to mid-term.”
Some have argued that a reduced fleet of F-22’s is feasible, given the military’s other 5th generation fighter in development, the F-35 Lightning. But Major General Richard Lewis, executive officer for the F-22 program, stated in a 2006 article that “The problem with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in establishing air dominance is that you have to buy two or three to replace the F-22, because it only has half the weapons load, and it doesn’t have the speed. You can’t replace (the F-22) one-for-one with an F-35 or any other legacy fighter such as the F-15E.”
Perhaps nothing else better illustrates the capabilities of the F-22 than the statistics. In Operation Northern Edge, a joint training operation conducted in Alaska in 2006, not a single F-22 was shot down in simulated exercises. The plane went on to achieve a stunning 108-0 kill ratio.
Furthermore, the value of the F-22 in dealing with surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) cannot be undervalued. General Lewis noted that neither the F-15 nor the F-16 is capable of dealing with both SAM installations and other fighters at the same time. The F-22 does, however, have this capability.
Gingrey says, “While the President hustled his $1 trillion non-stimulus stimulus bill through Congress and has issued bailout after bailout–all to ‘save or create jobs’–$1 billion to adequately fund missile defense programs and $1.75 billion for additional F-22s was deemed too costly.”
Now we are learning, as noted by Investor’s Business Daily, that the prospect of replacing the F-22 with the F-35 “is proving to be an expensive mistake” and that “We may wind up defenseless and broke.”
The paper noted that “Gates was questioned about the program at a Senate hearing on Tuesday [February 2]. He said he was unaware of a report by a special Pentagon assessment team in late 2008 that found development of the plane could be delayed by 2 1/2 years with $16.6 billion in cost overruns. Judging by his decisions, he is not unaware that the F-35 program, designed to fill the needs of all three services, is in trouble.”
The paper added: “Further program delays will drive up per-unit costs, the wings are literally falling off our F-15s and F-16s, and the administration has killed further production of the F-22 Raptor. With what will we fight?”
Covering for the defense secretary, the New York Times reported that Gates said at the hearing that he did not “recall” the report from 2008 Pentagon assessment report on delays in the F-35 program. Where are the media demands for accountability from Gates?
Senator Saxby Chambliss accused Gates of withholding bad news on the F-35 until after Congress had gone along with Obama’s desire to end production of the F-22. Chambliss asked Gates, with the F-35 in trouble, would he reconsider the F-22 decision. “No,” Gates said.
By the same token, Gates can be counted on to try to force “gays” into the military, despite evidence showing the policy would be a disaster from which we as a nation may not recover.
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