Find out how many of our taxpayer dollars are required to buy just ONE B-2 so-called "Stealth" bomber! Over half a billion dollars! I just flew a trip with a flight attendant whose husband, although now a civilian (former B-52 EWO etc), helps with certain aspects of the B-2 mission.
Some of our Pentagon senior officers have been so far removed from operational decisions and realities, that it is a wonder that Desert Storm did so well back in '91. Read about Grenada. I once talked with a guy, while on a FEDEX jumpseat years ago, who was an MC-130 (Special Ops) Aircraft Commander over Grenada.
Never mind using the modern Humvees as unarmored tanks-where some armor is often the only difference between life or death.
Many US Army Blackhawk helicopter pilots apparently consider Donald Rumsfeld to be a modern version of Robert McNamara. I flew several short trips with a part-time Blackhawk IP.
R.M. meddled with , maybe screwed up so much of the Southeast Asia 'experience', as written by soldiers who were in combat, later command positions.
This various topics may seem totally unrelated, but what do our various military bureaucrats learn from mistakes of the past? And can they adapt those lessons to modern problems, and commit the required funding, whether for adding armor to all Humvees in Iraq, or whatever the operational need? At least they are shipping more cargo by air in Iraq.