11 September Town Hall commentary - Marines vs. Military-Industrial Complex by Robert Novak.

The Navy’s last two battleships appeared in December to have seen their final combat, on their way to being museum pieces. That’s not necessarily so. A decision to be made on Capitol Hill this week will determine whether the USS Iowa and USS Wisconsin are ready for a possible naval confrontation in the Persian Gulf with Iran.

Advocates of maintaining the World War II-vintage warships as troop-support firing platforms fell short nine months ago in their efforts to block a provision in the Defense Department authorization bill sending the vessels to museums. Overlooked then was the bill’s conference report requiring that the battle wagons be returned to active duty if the president declares a national emergency. But they will be useless relics unless this year’s defense authorization prohibits changes in the battleships that “would impair their military utility.”

That language is opposed by a formidable array: the Navy high command, Defense Department bureaucrats, major defense contractors — in short, the whole military-industrial complex, which prefers expensive, futuristic weapons over two generations-old standbys. The Marines, in a rare break from official Pentagon policy, are fighting for the battleships as their only naval surface support. What makes the Marines’ cause more compelling than it was last year is the rise of Iran as a potential nuclear power...