Romney Plans Military Build-Up
If elected, Romney says military needs more planes, ships and 100,000 more active-duty personnel.
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MOUNT PLEASANT — Aboard the retired aircraft carrier the USS Yorktown, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said if he is elected, he will invest heavily in military capital and manpower.
Speaking aboard the WWII-era carrier at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, Romney said cutting wasteful defense spending will pay for upgrades to the Air Force and Navy fleets while adding 100,000 active-duty service members.
“We need to rebuild our Navy … and our Air Force is smaller and older than it has been since its inception in 1947,” Romney said. “That simply can’t be.”
Speaking to a group of retired military men and women, Romney also pledged to provide better care for retirees and for men and women injured during military conflicts.
The investment is necessary, he said, because the U.S. faces increased threats from emerging countries such as China, India and Russia as well as threats from unstable nations such as Pakistan, which possess nuclear weapons.
“I will protect the U.S.A. by protecting a strong military,” Romney said. “I don’t want to go down the path Europe went down. … They cut the military to pay for social programs.”
Romney is on a two-day Charleston tour, which started at Patriots Point today and continues tomorrow at The Citadel where he will outline his foreign policy agenda.
At least some of the veterans seemed in support of Romney’s ideas. He brought tears to a few eyes as he described how as governor of Massachusetts he received the casket of a dead soldier when the serviceman’s family could not make it to the airport in time.
“The more he talked, the more and more I liked what he had to say,” said retired Rear Adm. James Flatley III. “We’re in a troubling world … and he’s so presidential. Let there be no doubt, he’ll rise to the top, but we’re in a democracy and we’ve got to let everyone have their chance to run.”
But with South Carolina’s first in the South primary looming three months away, some voters here are still waiting to be convinced.
“I think he could turn our country around, without a doubt,” said retired sailor Donald Mook of Ladson. “But I also like what Herman Cain has to say. He’s really onto something with his flat-tax plan.”
With both former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie this week saying they will not enter the presidential fray, Romney appears to be the front-runner.
A recent Washington Post/ABC news poll put Romney at 25 percent support with Perry garnering 16 percent. Other polls show Cain with growing support, but none show him or any other candidate eclipsing Romney.
Romney hasn’t spent much time in the Palmetto State. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. John Huntsman, and Rep. Rick Santorum all made campaign trips here before Romney.
Still, Republican leaders say he has decent chances.
“He gave a great speech… all positives there,” said Lanneau Siegling, a retired Army General and a South Carolina Republican Party Executive Committee member. “He is so consistent in his message … He’s definitely in the top two or three. We’re going to get behind whoever wins and work like hell.”
Joe
8:56 am on Friday, October 7, 2011
SHow me the money!
Eric Wood
1:17 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Does the U.S. need 100,000 more men and women in uniform? Where will the 100,000 come from? Are we examining our military position in light of the current and future threats or are we still stuck in a mentality from Vietnam or WW2?
www.canigetawordin.com
Cornell Davis
2:00 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Don't let Mitt Romney fool you. The things that he said on yesterday will cost money. Where is he going to get the money from? "How does he know that he will be able to add 100,000 more troops?" "Don't believe the hype."
Joe
2:11 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Eric, please answer your own questions. Surely readers don't want my answers...
stanley seigler
2:18 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
[mitt say]...the U.S. faces increased threats from emerging countries such as China, India and Russia as well as threats from unstable nations such as Pakistan, which possess nuclear weapons...I don’t want to go down the path Europe went down...They cut the military to pay for social programs.
COMMENT
wonder when China, India, Russia and Pakistan will form an axis and invade a weakened, by social programs, europe...
pols use such obvious code words and phrases to appeal to whatever group they are addressing at the time...red meat for the extremes...
[eric say] are we still stuck in a mentality from Vietnam or WW2?
COMMENT
we are stuck in a mentality that transcends nam, korea, wwii, the cold war...it's the "military-industrial complex" ike warned us about...
[CLIP] In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.[unCLIP] http://www.h-net.org/~hst306/documents/indust.html
"we would not listen; we're not listening still; perhaps we never will."
stanley seigler
George Grace
2:59 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Romney is wrong, and he's playing to his audience like that retired general in the story. We need to cut the military by 30%.
Did y'all know we have a Navy base in Crete and Sicily? Why do we need Navy bases there?
Eric Wood
3:09 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Joe,
I can't speak for anyone else, but I am interest in your answers. I am looking for what others think, so answering the questions myself won't help that.
www.canigetawordin.com
Eric Wood
3:12 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
George,
I tend to think we could close some bases, and bring more troops home, but in order to do that we need an honest evaluation of current and future threats and the most efficient means to combat them.
Do you have a criteria to base which naval bases stay open and which ones don't. The ones in Crete and Sicily are for the Mediterranean, right?
www.canigetawordin.com
Joe
4:02 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Why do we need a navy base in Crete and Sicily? If you have to ask that question....
Joe
4:10 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Eric, I am not bothering, there has to be other people that read this than Stan and George.
Eric Wood
4:31 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Joe,
I will miss your insight, but you have to do what you feel best.
wwwcanigetawordin.com
stanley seigler
5:08 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
[Eric Wood say] Joe, I will miss your insight, but you have to do what you feel best.
COMMENT
ditto...tho i may violently disagree with opines here they have been most informative...
not sure blogs (whatever) are the best educational source...maybe a nite at a bar would be better...but;
there might be fist fights :)
stanley seigler
PS. close all foreign bases, bring all the troops home except korea and maybe afghanistan...
Eric Wood
5:15 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Stanley,
I'm curious why you would close all bases (excpet korea and afghanistan).
www.canigetawordin.com
George Grace
11:26 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
Close all bases in the Pacific except Okinawa and South Korea. Japan hasn't been threatened for decades.
Close all bases in Europe except Mildenhall, England; Rota, Spain; Ramstein, Germany; Aviano, Italy and Incerlick, Turkey. That gives a good spread worldwide. Keep open the base in the South Atlantic.
Reduce NATO to an operational/coordination HQs.
Reduce the 234 intelligence agencies to 12. Most of them just regurgitate what the original points are anyway.
Reduce the Pentagon 30%.
Retire everyone with 25 years service. No firing, the last we want is to throw more people out of work. Promote younger people.
Freeze all salaries for grade 04 and above and E7 above for 5 years. Keep pay raises for grades less than that.
Freeze salaries in GS12 and above for 5 years.
Why? Romney is dead wrong, there is not going to an American Century any more than there was one under George W. Bush.
With our air force we can deploy within 24 hours anywhere in the world. And with our carriers we can project power anywhere in the world.
We would still be the most powerful military in the world but we would start to get a handle on the Debt without threatening Social security. Maybe we could afford single payer health care like every civilized country in the world already has.
Did you know even Hungary, the poorest country in Europe has universal healthcare?
It's a national disgrace we don't.
George Grace
11:35 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
I meant to add get out of Iraq and Afghanistan almost entirely.
Leave one Air Mobile Brigade with drones and Special Forces in Afghan or Pakistan.
Let intell have time to do its slow work but when they get a terrorist target, like Bin Laden, Strike.
George Grace
11:44 pm on Friday, October 7, 2011
"Do you have a criteria to base which naval bases stay open and which ones don't. The ones in Crete and Sicily are for the Mediterranean, right?"
Yes they are. there is no No threat and Europe is right there, let them pick up the slack.
stanley seigler
2:44 pm on Saturday, October 8, 2011
[Eric Wood say] I'm curious why you would close all bases (excpet korea and afghanistan).
just shooting from the lip...i dont know enough to have a serious opine...but kinda like what George Grace October 7, say:
"Close all bases in the Pacific except...Close all bases in Europe except...etc,etc,..."
hope the "super committee" comes up with data/facts vice bs...eg, the cost to keep bases open...
actually think the "industrial" in military-industrial complex is more a problem than the military (bases, number of troops, etc)...
seems i read/heard there are more contractors (believe making substanially more than the military) than troops in afghanistan...probably true of most locations...and;
so much waste/fraud in weapon system and other military contracts.
stanley seigler
George Grace
12:45 pm on Sunday, October 9, 2011
I want to ask a serious question of anyone in this group.
Why do we need an American Century?
No one else in the world thinks that way with the possible exception of China.
Is our ego that big or our insecurities?
Why can't we just live, conduct diplomacy and business within our means without thinking we have to be everywhere, be everything and do everything ourselves?
Syria, Pakistan, India etc will work out their own history,however it works out without the USA getting all in a tizzy about it.
Personally, I would support Israel, South Korea and block China from threatening Taiwan. That's it.
stanley seigler
1:53 pm on Sunday, October 9, 2011
[George Grace say] I want to ask a serious question of anyone in this group.
Why do we need an American Century?
"It's very simple," Romney said. "If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on earth, I'm not your president, you have that president today."
COMMENT
we dont need political bs...we dont need an american century...we dont need to be the strongest nation on earth...
we need to invest in america...education, infrastructure, innovation...we need more steve jobs...we need effective government.
we need to focus on america's issues...not on idealogies...we need the facts...not party line talking points.
stanley seigler
George Grace
1:17 am on Monday, October 10, 2011
That's exactly what I was thinking but you said it better.
Rudy Gonzales
9:40 am on Friday, October 21, 2011
We do not need to build up the military. President Eisenhower warned of the influence of the "Military Industrial Complex" and those words ring true today! Efficiency and effectiveness is tantamount in defending our shores and wiping out any enemy at home or abroad. This is the right-wing talking through one surrogate in an effort to show military strength. America needs jobs and a correction to the jobs issue still at hand. This current 112th Congress has drug their feet and passed absolutely no jobs plan as they promised when they ran in 2010! The TEA party controlled Republican party has not addressed the housing bubble either. Big banks and mortgage houses have been lax in effecting corrections which in turned effected the local economy and taxation.