Saturday, July 19, 2008

Defense

Obama's defense priorities include the following.
Read more at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/defense/ and add your comments in 500 words or less.

Get your voice heard on the party platform!

7 comments:

bobnbob said...

I look forward to the contracts being revisited and the approval methodology fixed. Anyone have a suggestion for the wording?

Help a gal here, please.

Anonymous said...

Any Congressional authorization for use of force lasting more than 90 days should include an automatic tax to fund the effort, as well as an automatic instatement of compulsory service. These provisions would force the member to think about having to defend his or her decision in his or her district.

bobnbob said...

i like that - good - make them face the funding, and the chance that their children/family will be serving. thank you!

shipman said...

Oversight of the Pentagon should be a top priority, along with the perennial corporations who get the contracts. Does the name "Blackwater" come to mind, along with G.E., Raytheon, Westinghouse, etc. Think President Eisenhower is nodding in agreement?
I also like the ideas of public service and (I never thought I'd be saying this), possibly restoring the draft.
Also, if we're going to tie yellow ribbons on trees and put flags everywhere and use "support the troops" as some kind of mantra, then we should make sure that we take care of them when they come back maimed and damaged in unseen ways. And give them whatever education, retraining and help they might need to reestablish and reintegrate them into public life

Anonymous said...

I have an astonishingly simple, far cheaper, and probably unconsidered idea for defense policy. Why don't we simply stop going to war every couple of years? Do we really need to develop and maintain a military capable of reducing entire regions to pre-industrial ways of life? Aside from the danger of them acquiring nuclear weapons, the real threat of terrorism is a joke. I've taken several classes on conflict, terrorism, security policy and the like here at USF and the figured for deaths from terrorism are quite low. Infectious disease, usually caused by lack of access to sanitary water is the world's #1 killer, yet spending on this problem is pathetic compared to defense spending. This is getting a little off topic, but it's part of how I feel about defense policy.

Ash said...

I want to feel safe in the world again. I want to feel respected in the world again. Part of our safety is making sure that our alliances across the globe are strong, and continuing to form new alliances.

Barack Obama's principle of diplomacy is right. We have to sit down with our enemies. I want to know what they are doing, and I want us to make steps towards peace with everyone (longshot I know).

We can't go to war for reasons that don't exist. I would rather we never went to war.

Anonymous said...

How about a law that if a lawmaker votes to go to war, that their first born must serve in the infantry?

Wonder how many votes we would get then?