…so that leaves Carter

| December 2, 2014

According to the Associated Press and Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the White House is planning to nominate Ashton Carter to the position of the Secretary of Defense, seein’s how he’s the only one who will take the job;

Carter, 60, moved to the top of the White House’s short list after several leading contenders pulled their names from consideration. Carter is well-respected both in the West Wing and at the Pentagon, where he served until last year. He also has support among Republicans — of great importance given that Republicans will take the majority next month.

Yeah, well, the support that he has from Republicans doesn’t make me feel any better about his nomination. Many Republicans have embraced sequestration/Pentagon personnel cuts harder than many Democrats. At this point, I’d be skeptical of anyone Obama would nominate who isn’t me. No, I don’t trust any of youse guys either.

Category: Big Pentagon

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crewchief guy

not even me? no one hates the f-35 more than me. i’d axe it in a heartbeat. that has to be worth some amount of points with you, jonn.

cyb

The F-35 is absolute trash. Multi million dollar trash. When the A-10 is capable of dispensing death, still capable of dispensing death, and will forever be capable of dispensing death, why the hell is the F-35 necessary? Seriously, I’d love to know who thought this was a good idea.

Pinto Nag

“Seriously, I’d love to know who thought this was a good idea.”

That’s easy — whoever is getting rich off of it.

ArmyATC

Money grubbing politicians lining their pockets, pentagon brass looking for a post retirement job, and defense corporations looking to keep the doors open.

Nicki

Not just trash. Over budget, fucked up schedule trash.

Old Trooper

Kinda reminds me of that hangar queen the Commanche stealth attack helicopter.

We have gotten so wrapped up in the latest and greatest in whiz bang gizmos that we have lost track of what the real purpose of the machine is supposed to be. We’re blinded by the bling, so to speak.

Tegerian

If we want to save money we need to make an accountant the Secretary of Defense and have him go through that bitch with a fine tooth comb. But the extraneous uniform systems, kill the alternate R&D into projects that we do not need or we already have. Focus on updating some of the airframes and vehicles that we have instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. That alone could say billions.

OSC(SW) Retired

Good luck with that one, but I am pretty sure Carter has been in Lockheed Martin’s pocket for a long time. Back when he was Deputy for AT&L he kept many of their terribly managed, over budget programs going, including F-35. No reason for me to think he wouldn’t keep doing the same thing as SecDef.

Mayhem

Okay, Okay I can see you guys don’t like the F-35, but just so’s no one can say I tried to take advantage of you, how about this? The F-36 !! It does everything the F-35 can do for just a couple hundred thousand dollars more plus! it comes with a cigarette lighter installed near the HUD for easy access! Huh! Huh! waddya say! We gotta deal?

BCousins

“At this point, I’d be skeptical of anyone Obama would nominate who isn’t me”. I agree, so shall I write in a nomination for you Jonn?

Sparks

“No, I don’t trust any of youse guys either.”

Now…that hurt. 😀 I think I could stay home and phone it in and do a better job than Hagel has done.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

The problem isn’t just with lousy choices for head honcho…it’s also the go along to get along puffs beneath the leader.

You need some guys with balls, who can be courteous in dissent but not afraid to dissent. These days just about any stupid fucking idea the SecDef initiates those fucking toadies can’t wait to suck the farts out of his underwear and get cracking on it…

Not sure I remember the officers training classes on being a brown nosed little bitch, but apparently that’s the one class most pass easily.

jjak

“You need some guys with balls, who can be courteous in dissent but not afraid to dissent.”

That’s the problem. Anyone willing to do that won’t get the call from the administration to begin with; they only want yes men. And if any other senior leader tries they’ll be gone in a heartbeat.

The current admin is not going to permit an environment where that type of leadership reform is tolerated.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

Point taken….

Devtun

Doesn’t matter. The next guy is just a figurehead place holder. I suppose if you don’t mind being frozen out by WH national security “team”, and having protocols violated by getting circumvented along w/ CJCS when the WH wants to chat w/ 4 star COCOMS.

Andy11M

with the way the current admin has been chewing through SecDefs, I don’t see anyone being dumb enough to offer themselves up as a sacrificial lamb. but then again, this is DC.

That Guy

I would have to disagree, as almost everything in there is bullshit.

Money? Let’s talk about the ridiculous cost of maintaining that TERRIBLE piece of shit aircraft that will, allegedly, fill the role of the A-10, the F-35 JSF. More expensive. Not ready. Not finished. Not as well equipped for the job. Not a good aircraft in any respect.

The future battlefields? For all this talk of easily available MANPADs, you don’t see A-10s being blown out of the sky. It continues to be a beast of a craft even against ISIS, which is well equipped (by countries that are taking our gear and giving it to them). And in a REAL war with a REAL country, that 30mm cannon is going to be gangbusters against a tank or a group of enemies, and the A-10 is built around keeping that cannon pointed in the right direction for a long period of time.

Other craft that can fill the role? I note that all those other aircraft are designed to drop the bombs from altitude and then leave. The A-10 alone is built to use its cannon to level buildings, units, and vehicles comfortably, efficiently, and with precision you can get from a plane with such a low stall speed.

This entire screed read like someone trying to justify dropping a slow moving plane looking for excuses to do so. The Air Force can complain all it wants that CAS isn’t sexy, but no vehicle combines the lethality of a plane with the precision and usefulness of a gunship like the A-10. And the F-35 is, and likely will be, for the next decade, a piece of shit.

Old Trooper

Here here!!! Well said!

2/17 Air Cav

Ashton Baldwin Carter (i.e., ABC)

“Carter received bachelor’s degrees in physics and in medieval history from Yale University, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in 1976. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Oxford in 1979, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He was a physics instructor at Oxford, a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University and MIT, and an experimental research associate at Brookhaven and Fermilab National Laboratories.” –Wikipedia

Holy shit. Can he tie his shoes or does he have to wear loafers?

Guard Bum

Big deal, I can put three letters after my name too…like G.E.D, R.E.T, and when I piss off the old lady …A.S.S.

Actually, he is probably the best we can hope for i. The next 2 years.

Pinto Nag

I would prefer someone with a MILITARY background to head up the Defense Department, but maybe that makes too much sense…

2/17 Air Cav

Well, with that background, he’s either a Renaissance man or a yes man. I don’t know which. As Hagel and others of his predecessors have proved, a military background is no assurance of anything other than being able to tell time two different ways.

Roger in Republic

By his C.V. we can tell he is a smart man. Just smart enough to Yes when the answer is yes, and to say yes when the answer is NO. He is the perfect bureaucratic functionary. He has made a slow low crawl to the top.

Farflung Wanderer

Hell, I’ll take the job if it’s up for grabs.

Probably could do it better than any of the idiots they’ve been picking prior.

B Woodman

” . . . And then there was one. . .”
(h/t to Agatha Christie, “Ten Little Indians”, basis for the game and movie “Clue”)