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DEL.ICIO.USIs this really the time for honesty?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a jobs program in Marietta.
The Pentagon is once again trying to shut down the Marietta production line of the F-22A Raptor and Georgia’s congressional delegation has once again launched a preemptive strike to save the plane. And this time they’re wielding the sword of truth.
Top Pentagon officials may say they don’t need the Raptor to win wars, but Georgia lawmakers wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates to assure him that dumping the Raptor would endanger national security, encourage America’s enemies and cost 25,000 Americans, 3,000 in Marietta, their jobs.
Congressmen aren’t usually that up-front about their true concerns - jobs back in their districts - when it comes to saving weapons programs the military says it doesn’t need. Many weapons programs, in fact, are often designed to include contractors and sub-contractors from as many congressional districts as possible to ensure the program’s longevity.
In their letter to the defense secretary, the Georgians mostly talked weapon-system talk about “fifth-generation” fighter lines, “supercruise” and “rigorous campaign-based analysis.”
But the bottom line, they said, is they want the Pentagon to build 60 more Raptors after the current three-year contract for F-22As - won by the Georgians against Pentagon resistance - runs out in 2010 to keep local voters working.
The $5 billion price tag of those planes, the Georgians said, would keep 25,000 Americans working, provide business for about 1,000 contractors in 44 states and help about 75,000 other people who would benefit “indirectly.”
How many of the 75,000 work and vote in Georgia is not known.
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