I have permission to reprint this opinion piece in it’s entirety:

From: NationofChange Info {info@nationofchange.org}

To:XXXXXXXX@yahoo.com

Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 6:59 PM

Subject: Re: [General] copyright????

Dear Ray,

As long as you give us full credit, you may reprint Thomas Magstadt’s article. Thank you for your readership!

Cassandra

So here is it, as forwarded by Ray Gonda, South Burlington resident:

If it doesn’t fly, lie, lie, lie

By Thomas Magstadt

Nation of Change, Progressive Journalism for Positive Action

Published: Monday 18 March 2013

http://www.nationofchange.org/…

I’m talking about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, on track to become the biggest, costliest boondoggle in U.S. military history. And that’s saying something. The Pentagon sits/stands astride the most lavishly funded military establishment the world has ever seen. Meanwhile, year after year Congress, obsessed with getting re-elected and forever emulating the lemmings of legend, vote massive sums for weapons and wars that drive the government deeper and deeper in debt while undermining both national security and world peace. 

Back in 2011, the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting issued a final report to Congress estimating that the federal government had lost between $31 and $60 billion to contractor fraud and waste in Afghanistan and Iraq. “The government was not prepared to go into Afghanistan in 2001 or Iraq in 2003 using large numbers of contractors, and is still unable to provide effective management and oversight of contract spending.”

Now comes the ill-fated F-35, a super high-tech wonder weapon with a wondrously astronomical price tag and a well-earned reputation for resisting all efforts to make it fly. Once called the “fighter of the future,” the F-35 is expected to cost $1.5 trillion ultimately. (Some $400 billion has already been flushed down a top-secret toilet the Pentagon uses exclusively for its biggest boondoggles.)

The Pentagon’s special toilet is top-secret, but the facts about the faulty fighter are now a matter of public record. A Defense Department document dated February 15, 2013, reported that the F-35 wasn’t ready for testing as scheduled in 2011 and that a year later was “constrained by the current aircraft operating limits” and “the immature state of mission systems software and integration.” To wit: 

• No flying the aircraft at night, in clouds, or bad weather – basically under any conditions requiring instrument flight.

• No flying close formation, aerobatics, and stalls.

• No training in these phases, nor any actual combat training, because the plane is too early in system development.

• The aircraft is too “immature” to permit reliable training evaluation.

• Critical system deficiencies include the radar, the pilot’s helmet-mounted display (HMD), and cockpit interfaces for controlling the radios and navigational functions.

To recap, this multibillion dollar baby can only fly on a clear day (not even on a clear night) and only in nice weather. So far, Lockheed Martin has delivered 99 F-35. Of these, not one is operational at present.

How much will a fully operational F-35 cost to build, maintain, and fuel over the course its projected life? Estimates are all over the lot, but $90-$150 billion each. How many does the Air Force intend to buy? Twenty-four hundred.

Two thousand four hundred.

2,400. 

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy admits it’s not “what our troops need,” is “too costly” and “poorly managed,” and its “present difficulties are too numerous to detail.” But he’s still for it.

Not what our troops need, too costly, poorly managed, a real snafu-all true. It’s also where the truth ends and the lies begin. The lies about serving the people and the public interest.

F-35s will possibly be based in the middle of a population center in New England.  Guess where? If you guessed Vermont, you get a gold star.

The F-35 is very loud (no lie). If deployed near Burlington, it would render hundreds, possibly thousands, of homes “unfit for residential use” according to an Air Force (!) environmental report (no lie).

Sen. Leahy says it’s out of his hands (lie) even though he’s president pro tem of the Senate (no lie.)  He has no influence at the Pentagon, you see (lie.)   Oh, he really cares about being a good steward of our tax dollars (lie) and doing the right thing (lie) but he’s part of a dysfunctional body that can’t fix anything (no lie). And he’s also a senior member of the majority party in the Senate (no lie). A party that despite getting a popular mandate in the 2013 election refuses to abolish the filibuster and thus force the Republican-controlled House to take full responsibility for the sequester (no lie).  But, after all, Sen. Leahy and his fellow cronies really can’t change the rules (lie).

Meanwhile, the F-35 is an albatross around the taxpayers’ neck, and so is Congress (no lie).  If the albatross won’t fly, lie, lie, lie…   

*The DOD official who oversees the progress of the Pentagon’s weapons programs is the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOTE).  Eat your heart out, George Orwell.