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| Axis of Evil |
| U.S. precision munitions production has been doubled... |
| 2002-07-18 |
| U.S. weapons makers have doubled the production rate of laser-guided bombs, added a shift to assemble satellite-guided bomb tailkits and boosted output at one ammunition factory to its highest level in 15 years. Some of the ordnance will replace weapons used in the war in Afghanistan, but another reason for the buildup is to stockpile weapons for possible military action against Iraq, analysts say. "The job of Central Command is to be prepared for that Iraq contingency, and that plan is probably pretty well in development," said retired Rear Adm. Stephen Baker, a former naval operations director for Central Command. "One thing they need to do is bring the stockpiles up, particularly of the laser-guided bombs and JDAMs and Tomahawk missiles." The military still has only a fraction of the 40,000 to 50,000 JDAMs it wants, said analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. "They had obviously used up a significant fraction of what was on hand, and what was on hand a year ago was only a small fraction of what they want to have on hand," Pike said. Supplies dropped during the Clinton era, where they were popped off whenever His Excellency was |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 The best argument in favor of doing our best to avoid undue civilian casualties is that we're not like them. They can propagandize all they want; we do it for ourselves. Being Americans, we don't believe in killing everyone and everything in sight. |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-07-18 17:13:48 |
| #1 Nice to see the increase in ordinance. Keep one thing in mind: even if $2,000,000 bombs are used to prevent civilian casualties, Islamania will still use atrocity propaganda. Ergo: restraint is folly. |
| Posted by: RG Fulton 2002-07-18 12:24:31 |