Now Bill is going to get rid of some of our defenses against Russia, China! Y2K is important, it may be only the beginning.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon is scrambling to avoid a shortage of cruise missiles, increasingly the weapon of choice in attacking heavily defended targets in places like Iraq and Yugoslavia. Before the latest NATO strikes over Kosovo and Serbia, the Air Force was down to 150 cruise missiles carrying conventional warheads. At least 30 have been launched since then. The Navy has more than 2,000 but is using them up at a faster rate. No cruise missile production line is in operation. "The stocks of air-launched cruise missiles are limited, and it's something we're addressing," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Tuesday. The Air Force said Tuesday the Office of Management and Budget was permitting it to convert 92 nuclear-tipped cruise missiles into conventional air-launched cruise missiles, or CALCMs. See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558999069-72a

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), March 31, 1999

Answers

I read this and more on the AOL news this morning and it would seem to me that with such low defense and attack systems maybe we should get out of everybody elses' business and mind are own. Am I wrong to feel so isolationist? With y2k coming can we try to police the whole world?

-- Sue (deco100@aol.com), March 31, 1999.

'Send the fleet to the far side of Yugoslavia....there it will stay...until the China Scandal is buried." Darth ClintonSidious.

"Wipe Them Out....All Of Them" - Darth "Maul-'Em" Milosevich

"Young fools. Only now...at the end...do you understand" -Hillary The Hutt

-- INVAR (gundark@aol.com), March 31, 1999.

Doh! Clinton has cut the US military to bare (and I mean bare) bones and then deploys troops to more countries than any other prez. From 1992 more Captains and above took the money and ran. More projects got cancelled than in previous history. Maintenance was the only function being funded. Clinton picked fights with Iran, Bosnia, and Kosovo, depleting our military resources. Is it any wonder that we can't seem to fight a war (not that this is a war)?

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), March 31, 1999.

you want paranoia, consider this:

with conventional weaponry depleted, what's the only thing he's got left to respond with in a major emergency? try using the words 'president clinton' and 'nuclear strike' in the same sentence...

ack!

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), March 31, 1999.

Maria,

>deploys troops to more countries than any other prez.

Didn't your history classes cover World War 2?

Or is it simply that your zeal to spout exaggerations about Clinton exceeds your respect for historical accuracy?

As I pointed out in another thread in which you posted a lie about Clinton, "Clinton's approval rating would be lower if it weren't for the backlash against all the exaggerations, lies, and just plain ignorant statements spouted by his attackers."

Doh, indeed.

-- No Spam Please (No_Spam_Please@anon_ymous.com), March 31, 1999.

He attacked four countries in a year when war has not been declared. Outside WW2 (in which we entered the game very late and did declare war) no other prez has done these kinds of aggressive actions. You combined Johnson and Nixon in your response. Vietnam saw a lot of our troops, I agree. But my statement was not about troops, it pertains to number of deployments per prez (combining doesn't count). The current guy has made more than any other. Sorry you think I tell lies about the prez but I get my info from the news just like you. And I don't deny that I think poorly of him.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), March 31, 1999.

"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence." (Napoleon)

Incompetence is what I call it when primary tactical response plans call for heavy use of an expendable, renewable resource, whose inventory is limited, while the production line for that resource is closed. Cruise missiles a case in point.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), March 31, 1999.

Every cruise missile that they convert from nuclear warhead to conventional warhead is one less that we can use to deter the Russians or Chinese.

It's amazing that the production line is unavailable. Surely after a significant retool up time we could make them again. I can't imagine that a contractor would refuse more business... :)

-- Bill (billclo@hotmail.com), April 02, 1999.