The primary purpose of our Air Force is to keep the other guys air force off our backs. The best way to do this is to destroy the other guys air force (profound, ain't I). The Air Force is best suited for this because it is human nature to oppose your opposite number. To very broadly generalize, the Army thinks about destroying opposing armies, as do the Marines and the Navy thinks about destroying other Navies. These services would tend to think about destroying opposing air forces only to the point where they wouldn't hinder their eliminating the opposing navy or army.

Our Air Force is the only service that thinks about destroying the opposing air force more than anything else. Since they think about it more than anybody else they will probably be better at it and will develop equipment better suited to the task. Now this can be a disadvantage at times when there is no opposing air force. But that disadvantage, in my view, is outweighed by the advantage of having an Air Force that can expediently destroy its opposition when and if the time comes.

But sometimes the USAF is its own worst enemy; consider this story from Stars and Stripes.


U.S. forces destroy targets near base in Iraq

By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, November 14, 2007

COMBAT OUTPOST CAHILL, Iraq — A barrage of heavy bombs and rockets obliterated five homes and targets as close as 500 yards from Combat Outpost Cahill shortly after midnight Monday.

A B-1 bomber dropped 2,000-pound bombs on some structures and four 500-pound bombs on another, 3rd Infantry Division soldiers said. A Multiple Launch Rocket System took out other targets, they added.

The abandoned homes and an observation tower were being used to stage attacks and watch Cahill, say soldiers from Company B, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade.

“In three months, we had three complex attacks … and they were getting progressively longer,” said Sgt. Paul Bates, a forward observer from Knoxville, Tenn.

The last such attack on the outpost came Nov. 6. Another attack came a month ago, when insurgent fire put a hole through an Apache helicopter rotor and forced an emergency landing, said the Company B commander, Capt. Richard Thompson.

Soldiers searched houses in the nearby area along the Tigris River and found shell casings, personal effects and other evidence of activity, but not permanent residence, Bates said.

They also used surveillance from unmanned aerial vehicles and Iraqi sources to choose targets before seeking mission approval, he said.

Before the bombing, soldiers checked the homes and nearby area to make sure no one was in the blast zone, Bates said.

The attacks destroyed both abandoned homes and a lookout tower at five target locations. A sixth target was dropped because it was within 15 feet of a $12,000 pumping station providing water to nearby Salman Pak, a city of roughly 25,000 people.

The bombing’s proximity to the base shook walls at Combat Outpost Cahill, but did no damage to the base.

Following the bombing, Cahill’s soldiers said they hoped the big bomb drop sent a message.

“It should have a significant effect on the bad guys when they see something like that,” Thompson said.


There may be a very valid military reason a B-1 was used to demolish some abandoned buildings instead of a bulldozer, but to a civilian like me it looks like very expensive make work. And that makes the Air Force look sort of pathetic, silly even. That makes it hard for people to spend the money that will be needed to enable the Air Force to do its job in the next war comin'.