Get rid of the USAF, retort.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ recent budget proposals have sparked a national conversation about where and how to strike a balance between the twin imperatives of fiscal responsibility and national security. A recent contribution to that conversation is troubling, however. Paul Kane’s New York Times Op-Ed (“Up, Up and Out,” April 21, 2009) argues for eliminating the Air Force as an independent service because it “is simply not structured to be in the fights in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Today’s Air Force: More Than Just Bombs on Target

Colonel Peter W. Huggins, USAF, Professor of Comparative Military Studies at the USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Air University, Maxwell AFB, AL.

Today’s counterinsurgency and stability operations are ground centric. These struggles are inherently political and are being fought person by person, street by street, town by town. Our nation’s ground forces, along with those of our allies, bear the weight of this effort and deserve the nation’s gratitude. Air power and the United States Air Force, however, are making significant contributions to this struggle, enabling the success of our troops on the ground. Most of this effort occurs beyond the direct combat capabilities supporting Soldiers and Marines on a daily basis.

For the sake of argument, though, let us briefly consider Mr. Kane’s solution of eliminating the Air Force. It invites a long list of questions. Here are just four of them:

Finish reading the piece here that provides reasons that Paul Kane is a moron. A piece recommended for Media Lizzy as well who once said of the USAF that they just "drop bombs from 50,000 feet."

**Slight editorial note from my part. Those Navy SeALs that took out the pirates, how do you think they got from stateside to the other side of the world so quick? Did they set sail on a destroyer? No, the jumped from a USAF C-17.**