Pentagon cuts

Chuck Hagel announced significant cuts to the proposed Pentagon budget today.

If they are going to reduce their spending - and really, they should, we spend as much as the next, what, 24 countries, most of whom are allies - then troop strength is a logical place to look, and indeed that's a big part of the cuts. Pre-WWII troop levels is what the news story says. Conservatives will howl, as they are wont to do, about "gutting the military" and "leaving us defenseless", but damn it, we spend too much on our military.

Two aircraft are being retired, too: the U-2 spy plane and the A-10 Warthog attack beast.

Lockheed U-2 [Image from Wikipedia]

I can understand retiring the U-2. It has served well for longer than I've been alive but we have myriad satellites with ultra-high-resolution cameras now, we have drones; the U-2 has been largely rendered redundant. Flying it puts not only valuable hardware but also valuable lives at risk.

Fairchild Republic A-10 [Image from Wikipedia]

 But the Warthog? Aww, man, that's such a cool weapon of mass destruction. I wouldn't want to see one of those coming at me with Gatling gun a-blazin'. And I'm not sure they have a drone that can spew testosterone like the A-10. Yet.