"Palin was particularly criticized as a vice presidential candidate at the last election in 2008 for her alleged lack of knowledge on key foreign policy issues." Wow she was criticized for this? And look at what the Chosen One has done regarding our foreign policy! He went all over the world apologizing for everything the USA has done. Showing just how weak he is to the rest of the world. But does the MSM even pick up on his apology tour and question it at all?

I have to update a couple of things, first Crusader, according to a web site it was listed at 43 tons, however, when all was said and done, it was about 80 tons, so just one per C-17 opr C-5. Jeff you keep saying that the new vehicle will hold a complete squad therefore it does the work of two Bradleys. I thought the Bradley IFV held a squad of 9, the Bradley CFV only carried 5, so a one to one replacement is not that great a deal. The big issue with the Army at the time they cancelled Crusader was the transportabiliy. With vehicles approaching these sizes, there is no quick reaction force that can be deployed rapidly. If you don't have boots on the ground, and you can't send them out without some mechanized backup, you can't deploy against a formidable opponent.

That really doesn't look much different than the MGV chassis, which I guess doesn't really surprise me, reuse what you've done in the past to cut costs. The weight is surprising though. Contractors bounce around at the whim of the Dept of Army regarding weight. In the early 90's the Army wanted the Armored Gun System , a 3 man vehicle with a 105mm gun, that was C-130 deployable (just under 20 tons). Then came Crusader, a large (43 ton) vehicle. It was cancelled because of weight, and the fact that only 2 could fit in a C-17 or C-5. They wanted something lighter and faster, so along came MGV! It was to be lighter and faster, but was cancelled some say because of surviveability. Now they want something heavier, so we are back to the transportability issue of heavy equipment.

Ok, to the person who says send in the SEAL team to blow it up, that just won't work. SEALs can not dive this deep, standard SCUBA gear gets them to about 100 feet, and even with gas mixes, there is no way they can go to 5000 feet. A subsea explosion could make this worse, but you're right it could also seal it. I heard one person talk about it, and they don't think the risk is worth it.

I'm sure glad we have PayGo, that $500 M will come from somewhere else right? No I guess they'll do what they've been doing since the Dems passed it, declare this an emergency so PayGo doesn't apply. In addition to this $500M they are going to add an additional $200B before next week, all in the name of emergency spending.