From DKos diarist Plutonium Page, McCain's Double-Talk Express Rolls On
Today's Army Times reports that McCain flip-flops on his support for the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS), and distorts what Obama has said about FCS in the past:
On Sept. 8, the Republican presidential candidate told a rally crowd in Lee’s Summit, Mo., about an Obama video message to a liberal advocacy group.
"He promised them he would, quote, ‘slow our development of Future Combat Systems,’" McCain said, according to wire reports. "This is not a time to slow our development of Future Combat Systems."
Here is a link to the Obama video message to Caucus for Priorities; McCain has quoted him correctly.
Now, here's the critical bit, pointed out by the Army Times:
Flashback to July, however, when [McCain's] campaign furnished McCain’s economic plan to The Washington Post, declaring that "there are lots of procurements — Airborne Laser, [C-17] Globemaster, Future Combat System [sic] — that should be ended and the entire Pentagon budget should be scrubbed."
In fact, McCain has long criticized the over-budget, behind-schedule FCS program. In 2005, he blasted the Army for allowing the program to balloon to $161 billion, and forced the service to rewrite the main FCS contract.
Ouch. Looks like McCain really shouldn't be pointing any fingers.
Defense analyst Loren Thompson responsed to McCain's dishonesty:
"McCain’s interpretation of Obama’s position is typical of the way in which the Republicans have twisted Democratic views in order to undercut their opponents and at the same time obscure the past positions of the Republicans," Thompson said. "Future Combat Systems is the centerpiece of Army modernization. However, McCain has been more critical of it than anyone else in the chamber. Obama has been much more detailed and thoughtful in his comments about future military investment than McCain’s very superficial statements."
When you watch the video, you'll hear Obama's full statement on new weapons systems:
I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of Future Combat Systems
Finally, the Army Times quotes F. Whitten Peters, who is one of Obama's defense advisers, and former secretary of the Air Force:
"Obama had said that he wanted to review FCS and he thought that he might want to slow the fielding," Peters said. "His feeling is there really needs to be an overall strategic review of larger weapon programs to decide which ones are sufficiently important to keep going and which ones may need to be scaled back."
Obama's policy is carefully thought out, and is based on reality
