Ike Abercrombie

It's never good for contractors when an influential congressman cites Ike's famous military industrial speech, especially when it occurs in a markup of defense authorization legislation. But Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) is coming out strong over his cuts to the Army's Future Combat Systems.

"For some in our society today, the defense bill has become an entitlement," the chairman of the House Armed Services airland subcommittee said off the cuff at the fiscal 2008 markup May 9.

He also headed off Lockheed C-5 supporters over language favoring Boeing C-17s.

The full HASC continued to mull the whole bill May 9.

--Michael Bruno

Comments

[Peter]

Somehow I think the Headline of the Post should be Hard times ahead for Defense. This so much reminds me of what happen in the aftermath of the Vietnam war.

It is the rerun of a old movie I rather not see.

[Sean Meade]

you could be right, Peter, but i hope it's not that bad...

[bobbymike]

This is what is to be feared when the Democrats control the purse strings.

National Defense in not on their radar screen. If it were not for the contractors and the military bases in their districts they would zero out the defense budget and have a new global warming budget buying hybrid cars for the homeless.

I am reminded of Col. Nathan R. Jessup (A Few Good Men) when he said to the courtroom, "You people have no idea what it takes to defend a nation"

[Sean Meade]

bm: care to weigh in on the fact that Jessup was a liar and a criminal? not sure he's the one we want to hold up to defend defense...

[Big D]

This is rapidly going off topic, but the thing that truly annoyed me about the movie was that his true crime was never really talked about. Ordering the "code red" would have been a career-ending move, in light of the result, but it wasn't the *true* crime in the movie. Forging evidence and testimony to falsely incriminate his men was a direct and deliberate breach of his responsibilities and the faith of his men, and the movie didn't seem to grok that.