You don’t need healthcare, but Schumer needs a missile defense
Andy sends us a link from Bloomberg in which the Defense Department tells little Chuckie Schumer that he doesn’t need a missile defense system in New York;
“There is no validated military requirement to deploy an East Coast missile-defense site,” Vice Admiral James Syring, head of the Missile Defense Agency, and his Army counterpart, Lieutenant General Richard Formica, wrote Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan.
The U.S. has sites in Alaska and California. House lawmakers have pushed for an East Coast site, saying it’s needed to defend against a potential attack by Iran. Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has urged that interceptors be located in his state.
Schumer says that it’s to defend against Iran (who has apparently taught burros to swim with nukes on their backs), but we all know that he wants it in case those rowdy-ass Vermonters gather at the Catamount Inn again and decide to take Fort Ticonderoga back from New York. Or something.
I remember a few years back, when that Republican guy was President, the Democrats all made fun of him because he wanted to put a missile defense system on the West Coast to protect against North Korea (which seems pretty wise these days given North Korea’s ability to actually launch missiles), but now, Schumer, one of those Democrats, wants a missile defense shield against an enemy who can’t successfully launch missiles without the judicious use of Photoshop.
And, oh, did I mention that Schumer thinks there’s enough money in DoD to erect his missile shield against the Green Mountain Boys, but I don’t hear him making noise to protect veterans’ healthcare from the Pentagon’s chopping block.
Category: Congress sucks
Yeah, like Iran is ever going to attack the US. I’d be much more worried about North Korea.
Oh, BTW, you said “erect his missile.” lol
Reletant:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/06/06/the_seven_deadly_sins_of_defense_spending
Tom Ricks approves:
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/06/11/the_7_deadly_sins_of_defense_spending
We need to push back before all Joes are seen as a cash cow to be slaughtered by Congress.
As I recall, the sites to protect against Iran and Russia were to be found in Europe. But Obama cancelled all of that within days of his inauguration in 2009.
A BMD site in NY is like handing a pregnant woman a condom.
Too late Chockblock. A good chunk of Congress has already made it clear they don’t give a damn about fiscal responsibility or national defense, but rather what defense dollars can do for their state. Every Senator will tell you why the factory or base in their state will win the next war and if we trimmed $1 from the budget then the world will come tumbling down. If you told them you’d have to fire 10,000 troops to keep their piece of the pie going they wouldn’t bat an eye. Senator Sherrod Brown said in 2009 “I will help Secretary Gates trim the DoD budget – as long as it doesn’t hurt Ohioans.” This was at the same time the Marine EFV was about to be cancelled, there was talk of putting the Abrams factory on ice, and the F-35’s alternate engine was being cancelled.
I remember the screaming between Senators when the Air Force was trying to figure out which plane to choose as the next tanker and the Senators from Washington and Alabama were loudest in saying the plane that would be built in their state (and corporation paying them) was best for America.
Oddly enough, my grandfather was the S-3for a Nike battery in the late 50’s and early ’60s in New York City and the surrounding areas. The threat then was the commies. Someone should explain delivery platform to Shumer, then again, maybe not. He’s shown that facts are of no concern to him with his gun control record.
am I the only one who thinks an attack from Iran would be more asymmetric than a ballistic missile? I mean they c/overtly support violent insurgents along with their Quds force infiltrating various orgs
lol @ Schumer’s micro penis equating to fucking missiles being a necessity for him.
But the little peons that we are don’t rate the 2nd amendment.
If Schumer really cared, then he would pony up and make sweet love to the US Navy and try to open up a new Naval base in NY and try and pull some of the power (and dollars) away from the Commonwealth of Virginia lobby. However, he doesn’t care about the military and instead looks for anything else to bitch, kvetch and moan about how horrible the military is. Pure political posturing and to look for those chumps in the village.
So, guns aren’t allowed in NY State, but ballistic missiles are?
@10;
Only if the owner is registered with the government, is properly trained and has current training and can show a “need” to own a ballistic missile. After that it needs to be stored separate from its warhead in a crime and child proof safe and have child proof locks attached to it. Oh and in accordance with the NY SAFE Act, you are only authorized one and it can’t have a WMD warhead (though there are questions about the legalities of just a binary or even just spiking it all with radiological items if its a conventional HE warhead), no laser guidance systems and an immediate trip to solitary if it is found to have an MIRV/MARV warhead.
Okay, but Charles, can I get a CCW for my Missile? Or is that impossible? Maybe just upstate, not for NYC?
They don’t call him Chuck the Shmuck for nothing. Either his constituents love him or ballot box stuffing has become a science in New York.
It gets worse:
http://nation.time.com/2013/06/07/defense-dweebs-rule/
Our old “friends” the Center for a New American “Security” are targeting base pay, BAH and retirement pay. Remember folks, if we roll over and play dead they win.
He must be hearing the ghost of Ethan Allen:
“The gods of the valley are not the gods of the hills, and you shall understand it.”
Ethan Allen, 1770, in reply to the Kings Attorney General asserting New York’s claim over the future state of Vermont just before picking up arms to defend it.
@12
Nope in accordance with the UN Weapons Treaty, UNSC Resolutions and in general the pure hatred of a CCW; you can’t conceal carry your missile. Instead it needs to be out and observable so that your neighbors can see it and you can comply with the Open Skies treaties as well. However, you can conceal carry the launching apparatus, just not the missile.
Jonn – I love the Ethan Allen reference. I remember that bit of history from the UVM ROTC library. “Let’s get liquored up and take back New York.”
Another stalker from my past, huh? Is that you, CPT Fisher?
It would serve Schumer right if DoD decided it did in fact need a East Coast interceptor base – and decided to put it in northern NH vice NY. (smile)
To say there no “validated” military requirement is actually a half-truth. It’s correct, but leaves out something large and important.
In September 2012, the US National Research Council published “Making Sense of Ballistic Missile Defense: An Assessment of Concepts and Systems for U.S. Boost-Phase Missile Defense in Comparison to Other Alternatives.”
You can read the whole thing here, including the no-shit technical backgrounds of the people who put it together:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13189
They made a number of recommendations, including killing an entire unproductive satellite constellation, explaining why the Obama administration’s European switch in plans could never defend the USA – and placing a 3rd GBI/GMD missile site on the east coast.
Where Fort Drum, NY is the most likely and appropriate location.
I read a ton of these things, and this report is “serious technical guys with integrity” through and through. You don’t have to be an expert to follow it, either, because they walk people through everything nicely. The diagrams and charts aren’t just PPT bulls-t, they’re actually helpful to understanding.
Take especial note of why the existing ballistic missile tracking radars are inherently and fundamentally poor for targeting, because of their wavelengths and hence the minimum size of objects they can distinguish from one another. I thought their suggested GBX X-band supplemental radars, using twin stacked TPY-2s like the ones we’ve deployed in Japan, Israel, etc., was very clever.