AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
U.S Army soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Regiment, (1-22) of the 4th Infantry Division, talk onboard their M1 tank in front of a mosque in Tikrit, Iraq.
While recovering from being trounced on foreign policy in a feisty debate performance from Vice President Joe Biden Thursday night, the Romney-Ryan campaign is seizing on soundbites from the night to drive fears of a decreased U.S. military presence.
The Romney campaign is out with a new radio ad for voters in Ohio, attacking President Obama and his right-hand-man Biden for downsizing the nation's military industrial complex.
Biden came out strong in the debate, asserting that the Pentagon—including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta—advocated the cuts. “Look, the military says we need a smaller, leaner Army. We don’t need more M-1 tanks, what we need is more UAVs," Biden said Thursday night, pushing for more unmanned aerial vehicles, a heavily contested strategy known commonly as drone strikes.
The Romney campaign latched onto the latter end of Biden's statement for its new radio ad, playing the soundbite on loop with the vice president's assertion: "we don't need more tanks."
“While the world grows more hostile and unstable every day, the White House wants to take away one of the most vital weapons in our arsenal—made right here in Ohio. Giving our troops the tools they need just isn’t a priority for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Their own budget would shut down America’s only M-1 tank plant,” the narrator says in the radio spot.
But with the war in Iraq over and the winding down of combat in Afghanistan, the Army says it is done ordering the tanks. In a policy statement issued in May, the Obama administration rejected to authorize $321 million requested for the M-1 Abrams tank, saying they were "unneeded upgrades" in a "fiscally-constrained environment."
The Romney campaign's economic spin highlights the pain on the pocketbooks of factory workers and their communities in Ohio. That is, the political battleground state of Ohio. Not to mention the fact that Romney's running-mate Rep. Paul Ryan, who squared off against Biden in the debate, is the grand architect of the Republican's budget-slashing plan that cripples programs in the social safety net while simultaneously bolstering the military's budget.
"As an Ohioan, you know that's not just an attack against our ability to defend our freedom," the ad narrator says. "It's also an attack against our jobs and our way of life. Two attacks. Which one is worse?"
Since Obama's devastating debate performance last week, Romney has surged in polls in key battlegrounds - all except Ohio. The president held his own in the Buckeye state and is down from leading by eight points to now six in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll. And the gap is closing.
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As it's well known, Romney will say anything to win the elections. I quite support VP Biden that "The less thing we need is another war" and "war is the last resource" and I'd : we need to invest more in education and approve President Obama's Amirica's job act to generate the so needed jobs.
I think that's not an M1 tank in the picture but a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
It was odd the Ryan equated the military forces of today compared to WWII levels. WWII was fought with the best equipment available at the time, and the largest number of foot soldiers ever. Since then (which is where the repubs still want us to live) the improvements in military arms have been vastly improved (which is called progress, a word not in the repub vocabulary). Ryan comparing a tighter, leaner, and more cost effective military to WWII levels is like comparing a cassette tape to a Ipod.
We don t need anymore unnecesary Republican wars We have lost enough americans that its time to stop worrying so much on other countries and start take some action at home.We are suppose to live in a country thats so great and it use to be But it hasnt been in a long time as a matter of fact since Clinton was President he did everything and then some .I feel we have more of a chance at getting our country where it needs to be with Clinton backing the President all i know is in Obamas speech 4 years ago he said it wasn t going to happen over night that it took 8 years to get us in this mess and that he was going to put us on a path forward i feel he has done that but he also said back then that it may take longer then an 8 yr presidency.Obama has done a great job exspecaily with the houses stacked against him to fail.I feel once the republican seats in the house are replaced with demecrates he ll have something to work with to move us all forward where we need to be.Stop giving the rich the American dream its time for us all to enjoy the American Dream Our Great Grandfathers fought for that right for all of us some how the Rich has destroyed what they did for us so lets take it back because this is not the way America is suppose to be.
Speaking as a veteran, In war there are loss, and the loss is usually in personnel. People are expendable in war, not the equipment. When people who declare these wars don't go and fight them, some are looking at it as a way of a purge in your own country. Take a look for yourself. When people die off in a war, the nations population shrinks. And when that nation has an economic situation going, it becomes good business for those who promote war. It gets worse, but that I will not say. So whenever you see people crying about enemies to the state, beware for the skeems have only just begun.
Seems to me those who profit from war are those who sell the weapons.
Nobody is Home in Romney's agressive reptilian brain.
To Obama the military is Private John Jones, to Romney the military is GENERAL DYNAMICS