The current US Administration has ceded many aspects of US foreign policy to the predictable veto of Russia and China. The theory of a coalition of the major powers stepping forward at times of an international crisis is not working and appears to exasperate problems rather than solve them. North Korea is the latest example.The Chinese and Russian dictates over North Korean nuclear proliferation will only encourage the mullahs in Iran. Rather than reducing the danger of nuclear weapons, it will encourage the spread to states that are hostile to US interests. The US, under the current administration, is hardly blameless. The huge US trade deficit has weakened the US dollar and severely exasperated the balance of trade deficit and, given the appearance of a weaker US. I said appearance. The continuing debacle in Iraq has given the appearance of a weaker US. Again, I said appearance. US Diplomacy has lost some of its heft in world opinion. These and other events have emboldened Russia and China.
The continued and expected use of the UN Security Council, by Russia and China, to frustrate US foreign policy is unacceptable. No country and great power would ever willingly put itself in such a position. The US is no exception, but the world has changed since the UN system was created. No established bureaucracy ever reforms itself and neither will the UN. The current system, if changed, will be a creation of China and Russia. There should be no attempt by the US to participate in the charade.
Fortunately, there exists an alternative. The US, Japan, Australia, Great Britain, and many Eastern European States have made a serious and determined commitment to SDI. This program can hasten the development of what has been called the Anglosphere. This is the only direction that will quietly and surely protect the interests of the West, while the UN security Council slips into irrelevance and that is a good thing. It has the additional advantage that SDI is useful against all strategic missiles be they Korean, Iranian, Russian or Chinese. That should give the Russians and Chinese something to think about. Putin better have a lot of rubles.
One of the major achievements of the Bush Administration has been the continued deployment of SDI. This will come to be appreciated in the future:
"Quietly, almost imperceptibly, outside the glare of the Beltway and beyond the daily chaos of the war on terror, the US military is continuing to piece together an international missile defense system (IMD). Indeed, spring 2006 has brought with it new support and new partners from Europe, deeper cooperation in the Pacific, hopeful signs from friends in North America, steady advances on the technology front, and ever more ominous threats in the Middle East and Northeast Asia.
First, the good news.
Early in his presidency, George W. Bush vowed to begin operating the IMD's "initial capabilities in 2004 and 2005." Making good on the president's promise, the Pentagon started deploying the first interceptors at Ft. Greely, Alaska, in July 2004. Today, there are nine interceptors online in Alaska and another two at Vandenberg AFB, California. As the decade moves forward, the Pentagon will stand up a total of 30 interceptors at the two bases.
Still, the key word here is "initial." Missile defense remains a work in progress. For example, a highly sophisticated X-band radar is being towed by sea from Hawaii to Adak, Alaska, which sits some 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Once activated, it will discern between decoys and warheads as small as a baseball, and keep a watchful eye on inbound traffic from Beijing and Pyongyang."
"...But no member of this amorphous IMD coalition seems more serious about the threat than Japan. With Kim Jong-Il just next door, that's understandable. According to the MDA, the Japanese system already includes a network of new ground-based radars; SM-3 interceptors, which attack incoming missiles at their highest point; missile-tracking Aegis warships, which patrol near rogue countries; and Patriot PAC-3s, which serve as a last line of defense. Last month, Japan agreed to deploy a new X-band radar near Misawa to support US and Japanese anti-missile assets. The two allies also agreed to establish a joint air and missile defense base at Yakota Air Base by 2010."
"Plus, as the Claremont Institute's project on missile defense reported last month, the US and Japan have agreed to deploy new batteries of PAC-3 interceptor missiles at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. "Japan also plans to deploy PAC-3 batteries at bases in the Saitama and Shizuoka prefectures near Tokyo," according to Claremont. The two nations are also committed to co-developing a newer version of the SM-3."The Next SDI
MORE:
By Alan W. Dowd
There was a time when Dreadnaughts ruled the waves, their time has passed. Replaced by the next generation of weapons and tactics.
ReplyDeleteNow ICBMs have almost reached the Dreadnaught phase of existance. While formidable in their own right, they've become obsolete on the modern battlefield.
SDI, hasn't helped a lick in Baghdad, nor will it in Tehran.
Building a Great Wall did not save the Chinese, defense does not win games.
Building a Great Wall did not save the Chinese, defense does not win games.
ReplyDeleteBut SDI will create a two-tier set of game players, filtering out the wannabes from the high-stakes boys.
Some will build missile defense, other will build truck, plane & boat bombs.
ReplyDeleteThe Generals were all over FOX last night, "If the US is hit, massive retaliation ... blah blah blah."
But what of Baghdad, Madrid, Beirut or Bonn?
The ICBM is done, as a practicle weapons system. We'll have 'em, but never use 'em.
The bad guys will more likely ignite a LPG tanker in the Boston River, easier, cheaper, and no relevant retaliation. Ask Osama, he and Doc Z had to relocate, after Tora Bora, but hell, the new Pakistani compound looks a lot like the Afghan one.
No, rufus, it's because the US does not have the capacity to enter the area in strength.
ReplyDeleteNot the challenges that an invasion would pose the General President.
If the Pakis really tried, 80,000 troops were not nearly enough.
Even if we did invade, catching Osama or Doc Z is unlikeky, regardless.
As you say, we are not fighting any wars, and we are not about to start.
The Russians are coming!
ReplyDeleteThe Russians are coming?
Anyone with capacity to destroy 100 US targets have been detered for 50 years. Why has that MAD deterence ended?
The threat is not Russia or China, MAD has been more than enough to deter aggression.
If the NorKs get 100 warheads and missiles, wow what a failure of US Foreign Policy you see ahead.
Because it's not a War, rufus.
ReplyDeleteNot with Islam
Not with or in Iraq
Not even with aQ.
Not if the bad guys stay in their Sanctuaries, if they do they are safe.
Not like Admiral Yamomoto, back in the day, is it?
Post modern War, it never ends.
Ending a War would be a violation of the status que and thus endanger stability.
So US privacy is lost, while supporters of the President tell US there is no real War.
I was there over a 18 months ago, rufus, welcome aboard. The difference 'tween us, I think there should be a War against the Mohmmedans and you do not.
I think Mr Bush has failed to prosecute the War, you think we are winning at what ever we are doing.
How about a 3 day a month slow down of chinese products coming into our ports?
ReplyDeleteMoney talks bullshit walks...
Time to SLOW DOWN the chinese economic miracle!
Think of the impact!
Right, rufus, build the system, but it will not be used, and the unwar will continue.
ReplyDeleteThe enemy is at War with US and we do not recripricate. We spend money on 1% threats from yesterday while discounting tomorrow's tactics.
If the Russian or Paki nukes are used against US, they won't be flying on missiles. They'll come by truck or boat or plane, unknown and unannounced.
From Cuba or Caracus, by boat or plane to Miami or Houston. Just like a load of coke.
smuggled from South America to the United States and Europe in 2000 has been reported by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). According to the ONDCP "Annual Assessment of Cocaine Movement - 2000" (AACM), some 515 metric tons are estimated to have potentially arrived in the United States, by various modes of transportation, substantially more than the 382 metric tons recorded in 1999.
515 metric tons, annually from shipped illicitly from South America into the US.
Wonder how many 100lb or even 1000lb nukes they could get smuggled in?
Skip a whole "iffy" technological delivery step.
Plus it adds deniability, if the US was the target.
But as wretchard conjectured, it's not the US that will be the target of these Axis nuclear weapons.
And thus may not retaliate in kind
ReplyDeleteThe next frontier in the new arms race will be attributed to the US, a fallacy that the Democrats will openly encourage in order to demonize the Republican Party. Call such a policy suicidal and you have made a case as to how the Democrats have joined the Jihad.
ReplyDeleteThe weaponization of space is inevitable. The US has at least some Anti-Satellite Missile capability, and recently the ChiComs have used lasers to blind US Keyhole assets.
The Shadenfreud exhibited by the whores of the free world has certainly pushed us closer to the brink of global thermo-nuclear war. It must feel nice to be right about self annihilation.
Create an anti-missile umbrella, one capable of intercepting thousands of incoming missiles, protect the ports of entries, build a fence, and, in the short run, keep the co-religionists of modern fascism out of our country unless they possess advanced degrees in nuclear physics or chemistry, then, employ them and keep a close eye on them.
No, rufus, I was involved in a similar effort, in my youth.
ReplyDeleteWe turned a communist tide, a sea with as many adherents as Islam, without much DoD.
But we did have the Will to fight.
Even broke the Law to do it.
We'll have the best toys in the World, control the skies, but not the ground. We'll lose.
Voted into Peace, I've seen it before, just watch the sequel, come November.
How many enemy aircraft are over Baghdad, how many have there ever been? None, is the answer.
Air Supremacy, ooorah! We've got it, the enemy does not care, they don't own a plane. They just steal 'em when they need 'em.
F-22s over Paris, or even the Eurofighter will deliver the skies to the Allies, but not the suburbs.
FOX News
ReplyDelete30 page wake up call
Worse than anyone thought
Drugs and Mohammedans and Commies all coming together
A new Congressional Report
4 to 9 million illegals entered the country, just last year.
Hugo is training Arabs to pass as Latino, then provides documents.
Don't worry
be happy
Spent several months in Mexico just prior to 9-11, the Mexican newspapers were definitely pro-Palestinian and when I looked at the appearance of the rock throwers verses the local labor-union goons, I realized that we were screwed. An army of Mohammedans are being trained in Mexico as we speak. The next Palestinian-like cause will be a racist anti-white series of riots in Los Angeles and will spread to urban areas around the country. The government will step in to help them because the whities are not diverse, they are to be bred out of existence, because genocide is such an ugly word.
ReplyDeleteJust watchin' the morning news, reading the "paper", rufus.
ReplyDeleteThe "News" from Mr Murdock's network just keeps on rockin'.
Our friends the Chinese have started building their Border Fence.
Scores of soldiers have descended on farmland near the border-marking Yalu River to erect concrete barriers 8 to 15 feet tall and string barbed wire between them, farmers and visitors to the area said.
Last week, they reached Hushan, a collection of villages 12 miles inland from the border port of Dandong.
"About 100 People's Liberation Army soldiers in camouflage started building the fence four days ago and finished it yesterday," said a farmer, who only gave his surname, Ai. "I assume it was built to prevent smuggling and illegal crossing."
Though the fence-building appears to have picked up in the days following North Korea's claimed nuclear test last week, experts said the project was approved in 2003. Experts and a local Hushan official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the project, said the military was in charge of the building.
A Defense Ministry spokesman, Ye Xing, declined comment, saying he was not authorized to release information on border security. ...
... But the border became a security concern for Beijing in the past decade, as North Korea's economy collapsed and social order crumbled in some places. Tens of thousands of refugees began trickling across the border into northeast China, fording the Yalu and Tumen rivers or walking across the ice in winter.
Professor Kim Woo-jun, of the Institute of East and West Studies in Seoul, said China built wire fences on major defection routes along the Tumen River in a project that began in 2003, and since September this year, China has been building wire fences along the Yalu River.
"The move is mainly aimed at North Korean defectors," Kim said. "As the U.N. sanctions are enforced ... the number of defectors are likely to increase as the regime can't take care of its people. ... I think the wire fence work will likely go on to control this."
The Chinese won't let millions of foreigners in, illegally. Professor Kim Woo-jun, of the Institute of East and West Studies in Seoul calls the refugees defectors, now that is some kind of perception to see the NorK would be immigrants as defectors, not refugees.
Should we view Mexico the same way, a failing dysfunctional State, now with dualing Governments?
The Chicoms won't squezze Mr Kim until their border is secure, if they do at all.
Bet they build a fence for less than $1 million USD per mile.
Interlude, lyrics, Burt bacharach, Hal David, Dionne Warwick, 60s or 70s (forget which):
ReplyDeleteTrains and boats and planes
are passing by
They mean a trip to Paris or Rome
For someone else but not for me
The trains and the boats and planes
Took you away, away from me
We were so in love and high above
We had a star to wish upon
Wish and dreams come true, but not for me
The trains and the boats and planes
Took you away, away from me
You are from another part of the world
You had to go back awhile and then
You said you soon would return again
I’m waiting here like I promised to
I’m waiting here, but where are you
Oh...oh...trains and boats and planes took you away
But every time I see him I pray
And if my prayer can cross the sea
The trains and the boats and planes
Will bring back you back,
back home to me
The SDI is a ruble decimator. The Sov's and Chicoms are still building missiles but they have no answer to SDI.
ReplyDeleteWe can and should declare war on Islam, formally. If not now , when? When they are even more numerous? When they, buy democratic process have taken over Europe and those countries nukes?
Whip 'em
Whip 'em now
Cut their numbers by 2/3rds.
There are, as DR said many things they could do short of nukes. The LPG tanker, driving cars into fully loaded aircraft at the gates prior to departure.etc. Then there's the BC part of NBC warefare..they could give us some bad spinach.
Fortuneately we have a small lead in nano warefare. We'll nano their asses.
Finally many of the challenges we see in the future, and those we haven't anticipated belong to future generations. Edmund Burke (1729-1797) is generally considered to be on of the great philosophers. His point was that since man is incapable of seeing the future that it is up to each generation to do what it must to meet their unknown and their unseen challenges.
Who is to say that the next catalysmic event won't be something on the order of the Yellowstone volcanic caldera erupting. Scientists say if that happens it will destroy all life on Earth. But there could be lesser natural events in magnitutde that could easliy alter the course of mankind.
Right now our responsibility is to continue to challenge and eliminate the Islamist philosophy so that the rights of man can go forward. Kill them now. Doing so will give the world pause to consider us more than a paper tiger.
Travel, borders, planes, boats & trains, someone over the sea, ahh, so exotic, so sexy, so full of promise, for a little while there. The world we boomers thought was the 'real' world, with only the occasional 'error' nasty political interlude.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see who wins in Ecuador come 26 Nov.
ReplyDeleteQuito was quite the town, used to fly in for lunch, C130 would leave Howard AFB about 09:30. Land in Quito, then we'd go buy wood carvings and then be off to chow, great steaks and wine. All chauffered by a retired AF MasterSarge in the back of his little pickup. The woodcarvings were delivered to the plane, while we ate. Then it was back to Panama on the big bird.
Lot's of fun, went every couple of months or so.
Of all the horror of Fox's border report this a.m., the thing that sticks is, Hugo training Hez to pass as latins, then giving them legal Ven documents with which to enter the USA legally. No mud river romp, instead stylin' in on Pan Am. This is an act of war, I think.
ReplyDeleteOnce more we hear the word
ReplyDeleteThat sickened earth of old:
"No law except the sword
Unsheathed and uncontrolled,"
Once more it knits mankind,
Once more the nations go
To meet and break and bind
A crazed and driven foe.
Rudyard Kipling
I say we toga-nano their ass.
ReplyDeleteI remember those times, too, rat. South America was nasty in around sandinista enclaves, but by-and-large, it was a lotta fun. Flying over those Andes peaks in the early morning, with those dawn-pink 20,000 footers zooming up thru the clouds to nearly touch the plane--what a sight.
ReplyDeleteOnce this great nation held a Presidential election in the middle of a civil war.
ReplyDeleteNow 22 days out our congressmen can't even get a good forceful stream hitting the backside of the urinal ..we do have some kinda weenies in Washington.
We need a Bill Casey, bad. or a Wild Bill Donovan.
ReplyDeleteWell, optical illusion--snow covered peaks, cloud-cover far below. those Andes are young mountains, sharp angles, steeper than the Rockies by far.
ReplyDeleteSaid so over a year ago, but do not worry, Hugo's oil is full of sulpher, he can't sustain.
ReplyDeleteMS-13, knew their daddies. cuidideo amigos, gente muy peligroso
One day I volunteer for a search mission. We flew out over the Pacific and opened the ramp. My buddy and I sat there looking out the back for a "small boat". Don't really know why we were there, the planes radar could see a lot further. Anyway, we flew around this island, a tropical paradise with the waterfalls and white sand beaches.
ReplyDeleteBetter than the movies, after an hour or so of that, we flew home.
We never did find the boat.
GLOBAL TWAT by ralph lauren
ReplyDeleteJust a bunch of happy villagers, rat, til the Reds came to town.
ReplyDeleteThe US is lowering the standards to enlist.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be 16 with at least one tattoo, or not over 55 & without an enlarged prostate.
Be able to walk upright using a wheelbarrow.
The Republicans honor America’s heroes of TWAT with a 2.2% pay raise - the lowest since 1994 and 42% below the 2006 rate of inflation. What a fitting tribute from this administration and its party.
ReplyDeleteGiven this, a larger military is obviously out of the question.
Let the excuses begin; I cannot wait.
Air Force Times, 9 October 2006 – “Pay package in place”; pp. 8 & 10
'by ralph lauren'--ha--so true. cosmetic congressmen.
ReplyDeleteYeh, rat--where mountains drop to the sea, the eyes have a feast, for sure.
That's why that Brit General knows his Army is deployeed to the wrong theater.
ReplyDelete"Over there" has crossed the threshhold, for England, that's what the General was saying.
They are losing the Battle of Britain but all the while maintaining air superiority.
Not 'til about 2010, rufus.
ReplyDeleteIt's not what I think, rufus, it's what the General said, he did not talk much about Iraq, he was talking about conditions in England.
ReplyDeleteHis troops don't shoot much in Iraq, they'd do the same at home.
England does not have a Posse Comitatus Act in England.
The people of NorK are starving, Condi says it's not US fault.
ReplyDeleteBut that the NorKs need the aid we want to give them, but cannot.
Perhaps, says Condi, the NorKs are readying another blast.
What a show
Gotta love it.
Britain needs to deport all those nationalistic Anglican white people. Then everything would be fine.
ReplyDeleteLondon, is also out side our "Zone", their North Sea assets have dwindled.
ReplyDeleteBye bye England
The Army is in Basra, the Enemy is in London, but do not worry, it's not a War
ReplyDeleteJust wait until we have to face Anglo-Saxon Mohammedans
ReplyDeleteTen years, less.
Well, at least England banned firearms, so there won't be any one hurt.
ReplyDeletewhy? here's a piece of why:
ReplyDeleteOne day, at Fort Gulick, the trucks pulled up and out jumped about 50 or so men. Dressed in an unfamilar uniform, we watched 'em form up into two plattons.
ReplyDeleteWhite boys with red heads and blonds, about 5'8" average hieght.
March off, sounding off in Spanish.
The Hondos had arrived, descendant of Brits and Irishmen these guys fit no stereotype I had previously known. The sons of archers and sailors, just like US. But not a twenty words of English between 'em.
Lynne Stewart gets 28 months, hope she dies in prison.
ReplyDeleteHugo is falling short in the UN SC open seat vote count.
Guatemala's bben ahead, now it's thrown open to new aspirants.
Mr Bolton's doin' good.
Kerry don't like Bolton.
ReplyDeleteFjordman has a good post over at the Brussel's Journal today that supports rat's argument that SDI (and the superiority of other Western military hardware) has little relevance to defeating the Islamic Jihad. He is quoting Lee Harris' review of Bostom's book The Legacy of Jihad.
ReplyDeleteAccordingly, says Harris, Muslims
“do not need to achieve the same degree of force that is the monopoly of the established order. In the crash-of-civilization paradigm – contrary to Clausewitzian warfare – the enemy of a particular established order does not need to match it in organizational strength and effectiveness. It needs only to make the established order reluctant to use its great strength out of the understandable fear that by plunging into civil war it will itself be jeopardized. This fear of anarchy – the ultimate fear for those who embrace the politics of reason – can be used to paralyze the political process to the point at which the established order is helpless to control events through normal political channels and power is no longer in the hands of the establishment but lies perilously in the streets. […] The jihadists do not need to ‘win’ in the battle against the West; it is enough if they can force the West to choose between a dreaded plunge back into the Law of the Jungle and acceding to their demands. This is a formula that has worked many times before and may work again.”
Muslims can thus undermine Western democracy in two ways: By massive immigration and infiltration of established, especially Socialist, parties until they can be turned to serve the Islamic agenda, or by simply creating a climate of fear and distrust that gradually makes the democratic system unworkable. In Western Europe right now, they are making significant headway on both accounts.
It rings true doesn't it? Our porous border. Chavez trainging Muzzies to pass for Hispanics. Mexico with its two governments. Our loyal opposition party claiming that they were cheated out of the presidency in the previous two elections. (If it happens again, will they form a shadow government?).
What with Iranians Mullahs now having their picture made while holding an AK and Abracadabra's letter to Bush (last year?) having all the earmarks of a Fatwa declaring war, things may come to a head sooner than later. I'm talking about the attempted destruction of Israel in the near term by the Shi'ites and whoever else want's to tag team with them.
Far fetched? Maybe. General Ripper could have easily been referring to me when he described those who ".. have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought". But to me the downward spiral leading to cataclysmic events gets faster each day.
The House Armed Services military personnel panel voted out a 2.7% across-the-board pay raise but, following the administration’s protests and plan, the Senate voted out a 2.2% pay raise. Reported staff familiar with the process: “[O]nly one of the four committees with a hand in the defense budget backed the bigger raise […] The negotiator asked not be identified because internal discussions about the defense budget are considered highly sensitive.” (With an election coming, the Congressional Republicans are already vulnerable, without also facing the consequences of publicly Foleying the troops.)
ReplyDeleteThe administration might defend its policy by arguing that the troops need to sacrifice as much as the general American public has in fighting TWAT.
E-1 $1,301.40 - <2
E-2 $1,458.90 - <2
E-3 $1,534.20 - <2
E-4 $1,883.10 - 3
E-5 $2,171.40 - 4
E-7 $3,424.20 - 14
E-8 $4,051.80 - 18
E-9 $5,512.80 - 26
Inspection of Outgoing transport is what will stop proliferation. Inspection of trucks inbound to Korea is eye wash, as far as nuclear prolifieration is concerned.
ReplyDeleteDOW up 30, 10 away from 12,000.
ReplyDeletegood report, stoutfellow. system order law, all the way.
Casey was a playabut then so was that entire team Reagan on down..except maybe David Stockman.
ReplyDeleteFor all we have and are,
For all our children's fate,
Stand up and meet the war.
The Hun is at the gate!
Our world has passed away
In wantonness o'erthrown.
There is nothing left to-day
But steel and fire and stone
Rudyard Kipling
FOX News, on Hugo
ReplyDeleteHate to say ...
But it's just what I've been sayin'
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the House was more generous than either the White House or Senate in voting out a 2.7% military pay raise, this was still 29% less than the 2006 rate of inflation. Consequently, contrary to the President’s promise, the military will not reach pay equity with the civilian sector during his terms of office.
ReplyDeleteBy insisting that the pay raise be held to 2.2% for all service members, the savings of 0.5% of the personnel budget will purchase about 1.33 F-22s. So, while overcompensated military personnel might selfishly consider themselves wronged, the country will get one plane, plus. This may seem insignificant but, given the stunning victories in Afghanistan and Iraq through the use of precision munitions, this is no laughing matter.
I don't think anyone has disagreed wif ya, rat. Maybe doug, but he's gone, now--fell in the magma.
ReplyDeleteHe's up in heaven, gnashing his teeth at that big "Bienvenidos" sign over the Pearly Gates.
An E-5 with six to seven years in service and two to three dependents has a base pay under the 2.2% formula of $2,324. Had the administration signed off on the 2.7% formula of the House, his salary would have increased by an additional $11.00-$12.00 per month. On an annualized basis, the E-5 will make $27,888, instead of the budget breaking $28,020. After the President’s veto of the last Democrat pork laden highway bill, it is good to see consistency on the part of Mr. Bush.
ReplyDeleteAt this rate of pay, the E-5 is probably so heavily into the stock market that he waits with bated breath for each new high. That is, if he can keep up to date on the market while serving down range on his second or third tour. Of course, his spouse is doubtless equally enthused, so it all works out.
Stoutfellow,
ReplyDeleteMy interest in SDI is tangential to our "disagreement" with Islam. Russia and China are enjoying our troubles. They will continue to seek maximum advantage. They also know that our SDI program is aimed squarely at them. That is a good thing, a costly thing. For fifteen minutes I thought we could bring Russia into the fold. I sobered up after spending a week there with some Communist Party Officials. Democracy will never happen in Russia as long as Russia is one country, very much the same as Islam will never be democratic and Islamic. The Russians are what they are. SDI will be the price they have to pay for talking in one direction and walking in another.
The Russians and the Chinese see the US in a perfect storm, tied down in Iraq, losing the agenda in Latin America, and now the Norks and Iran. They think we are stuck with dealing with them in the UN. Multi-lateralism has proven to be as toxic as multi-culturism. SDI is the antidote.
For enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses, see , Link
ReplyDeleteCAREFULLY read ALL fine print, recalling that all that glitters is not gold. A government unwilling to pay base pay at the rate of inflation is unlikely to be spendthrift unless there is pork involved.
For instance, an enlistment bonus of $10,000 for a four year term is paid out with up to 50% paid in year one with the remainder paid in annualized installments. Therefore, $5,000 may be paid initially with the remainder paid in three annual installments of $1,667. All is subject to federal and state income tax. Moreover, if the service member is unable to complete the terms of service, any "unearned" amount is due and payable at discharge.
Typical re-enlistment bonuses are for terms of six years, with a maximum of $7,000 paid initially, with the rest paid out over the term of service in annualized increments. Unless, the re-enlistment is accomplished while in a combat zone, the monies are subject to federal and state income taxes.
Suppose the hypothetical E-5 has a rather standard MOS code placing him in the $12,000 re-enlistment bonus range. He may receive $6,000 at the outset, with the remainder paid in five annual installments of $1200 each.
While there are MOSs paying bonuses of up to $80,000 over six years, these are few and far between.
“Oh, won’t you come with me, to my little corner of the world?”
ReplyDeleteRice: World united against North Korea
You know, world peace might come about if the rest of us could get our hands on whatever it is this woman is smoking. Oh, yeah, it’s my birthday!