text: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has just announced the latest round of military budget cuts, an incredible $56 billion...and, as expected, he is toeing the liberal progressive line as to how to seemingly "cut spending" (in actuality: cutting the rate of growth of spending).
  On the chopping block: the A-10 Thunderbolt II (which everyone knows as the Warthog) close air support aircraft, and the Littoral Combat Ship, along with a 10% cut in Army and Marines Corps troop strength.
  Saved from budget cuts: the F-35 Lightning II, which is miraculously supposed to replace the F-16 Falcon and A-10 in the close air support role. Remember the edict about avoiding "putting all your eggs in one basket?" That is exactly what we are violating by supporting the F-35A/B/C/D.
  'Splain this to me, Secretary Hagel: Is the F-35 the solution to trans-Pacific threats that could just as easily shift back to the Middle East at a moments notice? The F-35 is a single-engine short-legged small-payload medium combat jet that has little chance against modern Russian or Chinese fighters.
  My recommendation: build the offense, IMMEDIATELY:
  Scrap the F-35. Build more F-22 Raptor fighters, with an advanced light strike capability.
  Rapid-build a 21st century long-range stealth bomber armed with hypersonic weapons to hold any target anywhere on Earth at risk within 48 hours. My choice: hypersonic and long-range stealth missiles launched from legacy B-52 and B-1 bombers to strike at any target on Earth within 48 hours of start of a conflict.
  Most importantly: STOP the White House acting as if the United States of America is a minor or even an equal player on the world stage. The U.S. is the world's only superpower--except Pres. Obama and his Adminstration are for some stupid reason adverse to staking that claim.
  The world once feared the United States. Argue all you want about politics, but the truth remains: no one fears the United States of America these days. We have been purposely weakened in order to show other nations that we are just like everyone else--no better, no worse. That is not the role of a superpower--yet we are being forced to accept a meaningless and impotent role in the world.
  DO NOT KNUCKLE UNDER! Do not be afraid of proclaiming that the opinion of the U.S.A. is superior to anyone else's. The world demands strong leadership, and always has done so. If it can't be the U.S.A., strong leadership will come from somewhere else: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, to name a few.