Gingrich’s B-2 Support Election-Year Rhetoric

Newt Gingrich’s plan to add 29 more B-2 bombers is a perfect example of election-year pork-barrel politics (“Gingrich Vows to Push for More B-2 Funding,” Aug. 24). In a blatant appeal for California votes, Gingrich and other Republican defense “hawks” are trying to purchase exactly the wrong tool. The problem facing the military today and in the foreseeable future is how to keep a small, flexible force and project it to trouble spots anywhere in the world. This force must have punch and staying power that the B-2 lacks.

The B-2’s weaknesses far outweigh its strengths in modern conventional warfare. There are too few of them, even with a staggering total of 50, to pound any kind of army into submission-especially if sortied from halfway around the world.

The military needs more heavy transport aircraft to put conventional forces where needed in a hurry. It needs more well-located carriers and bases in foreign countries to allow rapid deployment of holding forces until the heavies can arrive. More tactical aircraft, many of which can be bought for the price of a single B-2, are needed to support the ground forces, which eventually decide an issue. (Look at Kuwait, Bosnia or any other battlefield.) Sorry, Newt, strategic bombing has never won any conflict and is less likely to decide the smaller ones expected in the future.

DANNY G. MILLER

Lakewood