Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Undercurrent

I had coffee with a good friend yesterday morning. He was describing to me a conversation he had with a well known local businessman who is a right wing Republican and Christian fundamentalist. This man said he had been talking with some Air Force full Bird Colonels who were predicting that with in 5-10 years there would be a military coup in this country. After the coup there would be a cleansing of moderates and liberals who are soft on defense.

I would have just chuckled about this except for the story I saw on CNN a few days ago. A reporter was interviewing an Air Force General about the grounding of America's F-15 Fighter fleet because of metal fatigue. Hundreds of these venerable front line fighters will need to be replaced. The General said he wanted to do so with the F-22 fighter. The reporter pointed out that these cost a quarter of a billion dollars each.

The General blew a fuse and seemed to me to be out of control that anyone would question his judgment. If his behavior is normal for a high ranking officer in our military then I wonder if they are our defenders or if we need to be defended from them.

No comments: