NEW DEFENSE WARNING – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  Obama has gutted our national defense.  It's a hard thing to keep in mind day by day, but the impact has been dramatic.  He just doesn't care.  He really doesn't.

And I'm sorry to say that there are too many Republicans who seem not to care as well.  The zealous pursuit of a strong national defense, which marks the Reagan Republicans, has faded somewhat.  John McCain, though, is issuing another warning.  From Rowan Scarborough at the Washington Times:

Some lawmakers are warning that budget cuts, a troop drawdown and a decade and a half of wars have created spotty combat readiness, overburdened forces, more fatal accidents and beat-up weapons.

Weeks of congressional testimony from the top brass on next year’s $524 billion defense budget shows that many Army brigades and Air Force squadrons are less ready. The Marine Corps lacks sufficient aircraft to fully train pilots. The Army and Marine Corps can wage small wars but doubt they can meet the demands of a major conflict against, say, China or Russia, in a time frame called for in official military strategy.

After this sober news, the House Armed Services Committee sounded the alarm: “Concerns are growing louder and more frequent about the real-life consequences of cuts to personnel, training, equipment and other military resources as the security situation around the world becomes more precarious by the day.”

Rep. Mac Thornberry, Texas Republican and committee chairman, issued scary statistics. The Marine Corps’ major, or “Class A,” accident rate has shot up from an average of 2.15 per 100,000 flying hours to 3.96.

“We track this very closely, and the simple fact is that we don’t have enough airplanes to meet the training requirements for the entire force,” said Gen. Robert Neller, Marine commandant. “The force that’s deployed is trained and ready.”

COMMENT:  Ashton Carter, Obama's fourth secretary of defense, is a good man, but national defense is not a priority for his bosses in the White House.  They believe in "smart" power, which means applying their graduate-school degrees to combat conditions.  Not a good idea.

We hope the next president will take this more seriously.

March 28,  2016