ANOTHER DEFENSE WARNING - AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  Coming on the heels of news that Obama wants $60-billion in cuts from the Pentagon, we now have a warning about America's deteriorating strength at sea.  From an op-ed piece by retired Rear Admiral Paul Rohrer in the Washington Examiner:

Hot on the heels of President Obama canceling the Air Force's most advanced strike fighter, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) announced this week that we now face a much greater shortfall in Navy and Marine Corps strike fighters than was previously estimated. Last year, CRS predicted a shortfall of 125 navy fighter jets by 2017. They now predict that the shortfall will more be more than 300 jets.

The American people deserve to understand what those shortages really mean.

On the surface, President Obama's defense budget calls for cutting the Navy's aircraft carrier strike groups from 11 to 10. But a closer inspection reveals that Obama's program delays and budget cuts will do terrible harm to the readiness and capability of our carrier groups.

COMMENT:  The aircraft carrier, which was almost killed by a bitter Defense Department dispute in the late 1940s, is our leading strike weapon.  Not requiring the permission of any foreign nation to operate, it has been deployed in almost all the crises we have faced.  It is the main means by which we project, quickly, American power overseas. 

It is not shocking to read that the Obama administration is weakening our carrier forces.  When you think of national security, the name Barack Obama does not spring quickly to mind.  He'll never be known as Mr. Defense. 

Obama is pulling a Carter and a Clinton, combined.  At a time when he's spending trillions for dubious purposes, his Pentagon budget cuts appear reckless and very risky.  This, again, is a time for the moderate Democrats in Congress to show their clout and insist on adequate funding for the Pentagon.  And it is a time for Republicans to stake their claim, weakened in recent years, as the national-defense party.

July 30, 2009