Why invest in the F-22 and not the F-15 is the question.

It would appear that 40% of our current F-15 fighters have been grounded because of a flaw that just showed up. It had to do with a piece of metal that was manufactured too thin. Generals want to replace it with an F-22 fighter which cost 250 million dollars each. The question is why pay the higher price for the F-22 fighter when the F-15 fighter is cheaper to make? Well let's look at it this way if you were a General looking for a new computer would you want a 1997 model or a 1972 model when you need to replace your computer. The F-15 fighter may be cheaper to manufacture but the technology has moved forward over the last few years. The flaws have been worked out of the F-22 and the fighter's technology is the most current to date. Other countries are not going to invest limited resources in older technology because it would still require them to update in the future. Every woman in this country knows that when replacing technology you want the most up to date that you can afford to buy because it saves you money in the long run. Common sense should tell the people of this state, even the liberal ones, that whatever saves us money in the long run is the best way to go in the future. I can understand General John Corley's frustration at not wanting to replace old technology with old technology especially now that they are facing a future Democratic President and a Democratic lead Senate. Our party has never been known to want to spend a great deal of money on war toys. We just are not into killing people for fun and games. We tend to like to talk people to death instead because we find that it works so much better in the long run. I just don't get the feeling that the Generals would want to have to come back in a few short years and ask for more money to update the technology when they have the best opportunity to get the approval now.

Why should New Mexicans care about which fighter plane is purchased? The answer is that we have that base over in the Eastern part of our state which is on the short list for getting new F-22 fighters. We want to make sure that our air force bases have the most up to date technology so that our state is not one of the ones asking for more money anytime in the near future. We may want to move our state toward more peace time activities but at present we still have to face the fact that a large portion of our population is employed by Uncle Sam. Until that fact changes we should be very supportive of the air force getting the F-22 fighters to replace the F-15 fighters that were grounded.