posted on Aug, 19 2007 @ 10:54 AM
Thanks, Keebie, for input.
It seems that the military branches are shaking to see what falls down. Rumsfeld was put in his position to shakedown the military, to get it ready
for a 21st cen fighting force, by Pres Bush.
Note: I wonder if "blame Clinton" came about as an excuse for the fiasco in the elective war in Iraq. Rumsfeld even said in Dec 2004 that we did not
have "too little" troops, just that the Reserves and Guard had been built up instead of active duty.
Anyway, the Air Force would still need personnel to fly (even an UAV needs someone to fly it from a chair!) and maintain aircraft, maintain bases,
etc. What are they going to do--get rid of enlisted and hire contractors (ala WalMart), thereby not having to pay medical and retirement benefits?
I don't ever remember a service kicking out personnel to afford a plane or system.
Whatever is going on must be worth it to them to pay out up to $100,000 cash per person. That seems a large amount of cash to me.