I'm no fan of the F-22... but if you're going to field an aircraft, you have to commit to it. Otherwise, you don't have ANY effective force.

I agree with the brass to a degree - the F-22 is a giant waste of money that has questionable necessity. However - we committed to that waste of money when the ATF competition was decided and we spent a whole decade screwing around with the poor bird before finally deciding on something to place in the air.

You can't compromise a force like this.

The drop of the Interim Bomber is also a mistake. For all intents and purposes - the Interim Bomber is (or was) to be what they kept trying to squeeze out of the Raptor - penetrating strike capability. They never will get what they are looking for out of the Raptor with regards to that. But I don't have much faith the people in charge actually understand this (or much of anything, for that matter).

Of course - I have a different philosophy towards government spending during an "economic disaster." Money is a philosophical illusion used to motivate our sense of accomplishment and gratification into performing the work necessary for society to exist. As such - it has no real value. Rather than tossing numbers at the stock market - you toss a bunch of numbers at companies that actually employ people and make products. Contract for road repairs or running fiber optic cables out to some farmer - simply because you can, and to keep the industry moving/alive. Their workers get paid - they buy other things, which are made by other people.

Whether you believe it works as well as predicted or not is rather moot - it's a much better plan than tossing money at the stock market (of all things).

Thus - we should be tossing all kinds of contracts out for various things - especially our military, which is getting old. We've had a break from having to develop our military since the collapse of the Soviet Union - but those countries are recovering over there, and while Russia isn't as inhospitable and hostile as it used to be - China more than picks up for the slack.

Where do we find the people who make these decisions? And who recommends them for leadership positions?