Note to the NY Times: Will You Shoot Down Chinese Aces?

From today's NY Times:

"We were pleased to see the House join the Senate in voting to end the F-22 jet fighter program."

Well, like my boy says: "Ending the F-22 program to save $5-6 billion when hundreds of billions are being squandered by this administration is incredibly flawed thinking.

The United States must consider longer time horizons than the current security climate to ensure its security as well the security of the wider world. Yes, the F-22 is designed for state warfare and has not been used in the current era of asymmetric warfare against non-state actors. However, any student of history will tell that assuming the end of state warfare is incredibly naive and, ultimately, dangerous. In fact, part of the reason we are so lucky to live in an era of diminished risk of state warfare is precisely that the US has held such an overwhelming military edge in such warfare.

By cutting on $6-7 billion of spending -- which in and of itself represents a form of stimulus like the Las Vegas museum to the mafia stuffed into Obama's stimulus bill -- we also shuttered our capability to create such high tech pieces of security for the future. All in all, penny wise and pound foolish.

Unless of course, the Obama Administration's disproportionate focus on what is ultimately a few cents of security out many dollars of truly wasteful federal spending betrays a wider goal of downsizing the American military and intelligence establishments. In that case, the Administration's focus on this issue makes much more sense -- however, it is unlikely to play well with ordinary Americans once they realize their security is being weakened simply to satisfy an ideological agenda which sees the US military and intelligence establishments in an unfavorable light."

The WSJ isn't keen on the demise of the F-22, either.