Editorials Archive

2008

July	The Post-June 5 Air Force You may change names on E-ring doors in the Pentagon, but the problems don’t just go away.
June	Bad Medicine Gates wants to cure the services of “next-war-itis,” but he would only weaken the patients.
May	Questions for the Candidates The nation’s military enters “a period of consequences.”
April	Lurching Toward a Cliff At some point, we will have put ourselves irrevocably on course for the failure of American arms.
March	Beyond the F-22 Problem Why, on an issue of supreme importance to the Air Force, does the Pentagon find itself unable to agree with USAF's leadership?
February	Vindication + Vengeance The Schwalier injustice has been eliminated, but the Khobar Towers case goes on.
January	Catastrophic Failure Washington’s apathy toward USAF’s geriatric fleet comes close to outright negligence.

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Verbatim

Fifth-Generation Apples and Oranges
“I think the notion of the F-22 as being common and similar to the F-35, we need to get rid of that. The F-35 is a very different airplane. It has similar characteristics but it’s a different airplane. ... It complements the F-22, but the F-22 is clearly an air superiority and air dominance weapon. The F-35 is a multinational, multirole, ground-to-air versatile airplane.”
—Michael Wynne, speaking to reporters on his final day in office as Air Force Secretary, June 20, 2008.

Verbatim

Call for Accountability
“The GAO’s decision in the tanker protest reveals serious errors in the Air Force’s handling of this critically important competition. We now need not only a new full, fair, and open competition in compliance with the GAO recommendations, but also a thorough review of—and accountability for—the process that produced such a flawed result.”
—Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on GAO’s decision to uphold a protest by Boeing in the Air Force KC-X tanker competition, June 18, 2008.