The administration is budgeting an additional $245 Billion for Afghanistan and Iraq for 2007- 2008. Aside from a judgment of whether we should have started this war or our continued involvement in it, is the question of where the budgeted dollars are going.
Since the beginning of the occupation, the most glaring deficiency of our support has been in the area of armor for the vehicles the troops ride in. We were disgracefully behind the curve in anticipating and getting up to speed the manufacture of the armored plates and vehicles, needed to save soldiers lives from these roadside bombs.
According to the Associated Press, much of the additional funding is earmarked for weapons programs that may never be used in Iraq or Afghanistan. Among these weapons are the next generation Joint Strike Fighters and the controversial V-22 tilt rotor aircraft.
Surely we have to be prepared for any contingency, with a major focus on the types of conflicts that we are most likely to be in. We are well prepared for the large scale encounters that only China or Russia could present us with. We have not figured out how to win a conflict like the one we are engaged in.
The defense department and the defense industry will not shrink themselves. Nor have they been quick to retool for the types of conflicts we find ourselves in. We need to avoid the mistakes the Rumsfeld Pentagon made, at the same time modernize our defenses and demand accountability for projects that drain resources and are unlikely to be used effectively.