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4/22/09

The Huffington Post: How Europe & Canada Could Help Us! - by Steve Cobble:

The F-35 Joint strike Fighter - does anyone really need it?


For the complete report from the Huffington Post

How Europe & Canada Could Help Us! - by Steve Cobble

Europe (and our good friends the Canadians) can help the U.S. get its act together by putting on the brakes--not the economic brakes, but the military brakes. Here are some suggestions: Help get us out of Iraq; Don't join us in Afghanistan with military forces; Give up on the Bush/Cheney idea of European Missile Defense; Help us getting rid of several hundred overseas military bases; Pull out of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, before it's too late to stop it. The time is now, when President Obama's budget is being considered in Congress. It is particularly disappointed to see the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and Canada on it. I sort of expect the U.K. to go along with whatever grandiose military ideas the Pentagon comes up with, since even massive Labor Party antiwar activism could still not stop Tony Blair from his stupid, illegal, and disastrous backing for George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. But why is the Netherlands building F-35s? Why are Norway & Denmark?

Pentagon's proposal is to build 2,458 of these F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, at a minimum cost of $100 million apiece, the future costs are huge. Some experts believe that the life-cycle costs of the F-35 will approach a trillion dollars, more than Obama's first stimulus package!

1 comment:

HMS said...

How on Earth could the alleged "affordable" JSF become so un-affordable!

Very happy with Dutch gov's decision today. It makes little sense to be asked to sink so much national budget into a foreign project that's uncertain in terms of cost, industrial return and eventual performance.