Yesterday in his usual dulcet tones the president spoke of the budget cuts that he was making. He said some people will think that 16.7 billion dollars is a small thing, but he thought 17 billion dollars was real money even in Washington.
Of course I am paraphrasing his actual words, but the essence of his speech was that he was making a real effort to cut the budget.
He didn't bother to tell the public, whose tax dollars he has spent at a $100 million per day rate for the first 100 days he has been president. That 3/4 of the cuts were in the National defense budget! This all takes place, when he just announced that he was sending 21 thousand more troops to Afghanistan, and the generals who are directing the war against the Taliban say they will need many more to defeat them.
Across the ocean in the Russian capitol the Russians were rattling their sabres by demonstrating their military might at the same time. Rows of missiles and tanks rolled through Moscow's Red Square and dozens of combat jets roared overhead in the Victory Day parade in the largest show of Russia's military might in its post-Soviet history.
Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, is Russia's most important secular holiday, and the parade reflected the Kremlin's efforts to revive the nation's armed forces and global clout.
In a speech opening the parade, President Dmitry Medvedev said the nation's armed forces are "ready to give adequate response to any aggression."
The parade displayed about 9,000 troops, more than 100 combat vehicles, including new Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles. For the first time, it featured the state-of-the art S-400 air defense missiles which Russian officials say are unrivaled in their combat capability.
Meanwhile,as Obama was announcing his budget cuts, he did not tell us that they amount to less than .0007 % of the 62.9 trillion dollar unfunded liability that the Federal Gov. will have for the next ten years servicing entitlement programs. The programs are estimated to cost 71 trillion dollars, but 62.9 trillion is the amount unfunded that will come in the form of futures taxes!
Not one of the cuts that Obama made and is "crowing" about are in the area of domestic agencies and funding!Source:Congressional record
This completes a trifecta of insults to those who serve our country that Obama is guilty of perpetrating since taking control as Commander In Chief.
Besides the cuts in the military budget that were part of Obama's debt reduction announced yesterday. There is this; the Obama administration is asking Congress to slash almost in half a 43-year-old Justice Department program that provides death, disability and education benefits to the families of slain police and public safety officers.
President Obama's 2010 budget reduces funding for the Public Safety Officers' Death Benefits Program from $110 million this year to $60 million for next year's budget.
And in keeping his campaign promises to the anti-Iraq war ilk. Obama will begin withdrawing troops from Iraq this June and complete withdrawal by August 2010.But this premature withdrawal will leave the elite forces like the Green Berets in a vulnerable position that is reminiscent of Viet Nam.
As the U.S. readies the pullout of its major combat units from Iraq, officials are concerned that the Pentagon's Green Berets and other elite anti-terror warriors staying behind won't have the helicopters, equipment and other logistical support they need.
The uniquely trained special operations forces are scattered across Iraq, generally carrying out the more secretive missions, pursuing AL-Qaida and other terrorist suspects. As they do that, they must rely on their brethren in larger, conventional military units to fuel their helicopters, fix their trucks, transport them from place to place and provide them with the support troops they need and even the food they eat.
Those support systems, however, will begin to drop off as combat brigades begin leaving Iraq later this year and are not replaced.
There are currently 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, including up to 5,000 special operators such as Army Green Berets and Rangers, Navy SEALS, and Marine and Air Force special operations units.
Ken McGraw, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Special Operations Command in Florida, said officials are aware that the elite forces will continue to conduct missions across Iraq and will need support from other military units.
"It is a responsibility of the operational commanders in Iraq to balance their capabilities to meet the requirements of the units that remain behind as others draw down," said McGraw.
Roger Carstens,said Roger Carstens, a retired Army Special Forces officer now with the Center for a New American Security who gathered information in Iraq and Afghanistan last year for a report on the status of the military's special operations forces, said commanders told him that such logistical worries are what keep them up at night. Teams in far-flung locations, he said, worry that they will have to leave those areas when the major combat units pull up stakes and leave, taking their motor pools, security guards, analysts, medical care and helicopters with them.
"The guys on the ground are concerned," said Roger Carstens, a retired Army Special Forces officer now with the Center for a New American Security. "They're not sure how this is going to play out. Everyone is worried and all they're trying to do is raise their hand early in the game before it happens.I believe the need to do more than "raise their hand". This betrayal demands a march on Washington before we have a massacre on our hands. The enemy is salivating at the opportunity to pick off these deserted warriors who will be left unsupported.
Is this the change we expected from Obama?
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