McCain '58 lambastes DoD for force sizes, LCS

[GreatAmerican]

<p><a href="http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_mccain_lcs_071015w/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_mccain_lcs_071015w/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday that one of his top priorities if elected president would be increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps, and also that he was displeased with cost overruns in the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program.</p>

<p>In an interview with Military Times editors and reporters, McCain said he was “not a detailed numbers person” and was not fixed on specific figures for the size of the increases in those services, which are already trying to expand under recently approved plans.</p>

<p>He did say, however, that the services bearing the brunt of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should be “a hell of a lot bigger than they are now.”...

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[GreatAmerican]

<p><a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_mccaindraft_071016w/[/url]”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_mccaindraft_071016w/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

A military draft will never work until there is a way to ensure that the children of wealthy families serve, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a Vietnam veteran and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.</p>

<p>“Before I would even have remote consideration for it, someone has to tell me how rich people are forced to serve along with poor people. Rich people can always find a doctor who can say they have a bad knee,” McCain said Monday in a meeting with Military Times editors and reporters…

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[GreatAmerican]

<p><a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_webb_biggerfleet_071016w/[/url]”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/10/navy_webb_biggerfleet_071016w/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

The number of the ships in the Navy should be “substantially higher” than today’s 279 ships and the new “floor” of 313 ships that commanders hope for, Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb said Saturday.</p>

<p>Webb endorsed “assessments” that he said called for as many as 350 ships — or more — in a statement timed to coincide with the Navy’s 232nd birthday and the 20th anniversary of the Navy Memorial in downtown Washington, D.C. As President Reagan’s secretary of the Navy, Webb presided at the dedication of the memorial in 1987…

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<p>Déjà vu circa. 1987.</p>