When We Need It

Is there waste at the Pentagon? You betcha! But when even Democrats Leon Panetta (SecDef) and Hillary Clinton (SecState) warn against more than the $350 billion in cuts targeted over the next 10 years, we ignore it at our peril. One example is a major weapon system that helped tilt the balance in Libya.

The USS Florida is a ballistic missile sub that has been converted into a cruise missile carrier. It carries 160 cruise missiles anywhere in the world, silent and undetected, and then launches this devastating payload when the order is given. When the U.S. joined the fray to depose Gaddafi (oops - to protect his persecuted people under the new nomenclature!) Florida got the call and launched 100 cruise missiles that in short order gutted the Gaddafi military as any kind of a strategic threat.

Developing and operating these lethal systems is not cheap. Missile subs take a decade to design and build. Other weapons that proved very effective in Libya were A-10 ground attack aircraft, AC-130 gunships, and Predator drones. The first two are getting very long in the tooth and there is nothing in the pipeline to replace them.  The world is not getting to be a safer place. If we turn our back, we are likely to get mugged from behind. One of the unarguable obligations of the President and Congress is to provide for the national defense. The Pentagon can shed some fat, but muscle and bone should be clearly off limits. We need to get on with modernizing our forces so that when the time comes that we send our people in harm's way and they need the big stick, it is there and ready.

www.weeklystandard.com/articles/shores-tripoli_591420.html