XPost: talk.politics.guns
On 09 Aug 2023, Molly Bolt <
mollythebolt666@gmail.com> posted some news:
419333fd-92d2-436b-83c8-5ee8efcebd94n@googlegroups.com:
On Wednesday, August 9, 2023 at 5:01:25 PM UTC-5, Charlie Glock
wrote:
On 2023-08-09, Leroy N. Soetoro <democrat-...@mail.house.gov> wrote:
https://apnews.com/article/space-command-biden-colorado-alabama-
382b12b57733848fd1d083227aefa0bf
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has decided to keep U.S.
Space
Command headquarters in Colorado, overturning a last-ditch decision
by
the
Trump administration to move it to Alabama. The choice ended months
of
thorny deliberations, but an Alabama lawmaker vowed to fight on.
U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Monday that Biden was
convinced by the head of Space Command, Gen. James Dickinson, who
argue
d
that moving his headquarters now would jeopardize military
readiness.
Dickinson’s view, however, was in contrast to Air Force leaders
hip, who
studied the issue at length and determined that relocating to
Huntsvill
e,
Alabama, was the right move.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of
Biden’s rationale for the decision.
In announcing the plans, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press
secretary
,
said the decision was based on an “objective and deliberate pro
cess
informed by data and analysis.” He said Defense Secretary Lloyd
Austin
supported the president’s decision.
Reaction to the decision came fast and was sharply divided, as
Colorado
lawmakers praised it and Alabama officials slammed it as a
political maneuver. “This fight is far from over,” warned Rep.
Mi
ke Rogers, R-Ala.,
chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Biden, said the U.S. officials, believes that keeping the command
in Colorado Springs would avoid a disruption in readiness that the
move wo
uld
cause, particularly as the U.S. races to compete with China in
space. A
nd
they said Biden firmly believes that maintaining stability will
help th
e
military be better able to respond in space over the next decade.
Those
factors, they said, outweighed what the president believed would be
any
minor benefits of moving to Alabama.
Biden’s decision enraged Alabama lawmakers and is sure to fuel
accusations
that abortion politics played a role in the choice. The location
debate
has become entangled in the ongoing battle between Alabama
Republican S
en.
Tommy Tuberville and the Defense Department over the move to
provide travel for troops seeking reproductive health care.
Tuberville opposed
the
policy is blocking hundreds of military promotions in protest.
The U.S. officials said the abortion issue had no effect at all on
Bide
n’s
decision. And they said the president fully expected there would be
different views on the matter within the Defense Department.
Tuberville, in a statement, said the top three choices for Space
Comman
d
headquarters were all in Republican-leaning states — Alabama, N
ebraska and
Texas — and bypassing them “looks like blatant patronag
e politics.”
Formally created in August 2019, the command was temporarily based
in
Colorado, and Air Force and Space Force leaders initially
recommended i
t
stay there. In the final days of his presidency Donald Trump
decided it
should be based in Huntsville.
The change triggered a number of reviews.
Proponents of keeping the command in Colorado have argued that
moving i
t
to Huntsville and creating a new headquarters would set back its
progre
ss
at a time it needs to move quickly to be positioned to match China
s
military space rise. And Colorado Springs is also home to the Air
Force
Academy, which now graduates Space Force guardians, and more than
24 military space missions, including three Space Force bases.
Officials also argued that any new headquarters in Alabama would
not be
completed until sometime after 2030, forcing a lengthy transition.
Huntsville, however, scored higher than Colorado Springs in a
Governmen
t
Accountability Office assessment of potential locations and has
long be
en
a home to some of earliest missiles used in the nation’s space
programs,
including the Saturn V rocket. It is home to the Army’s Space a
nd Missile
Defense Command.
According to officials, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who
ordered
his
own review of the matter, leaned toward Huntsville, while Dickinson
was
staunchly in favor of staying put. The officials said Austin
presented
both options to Biden.
In a statement Monday, Kendall said the service will work to
quickly implement Biden’s decision, adding that keeping the
command in
Colorado
will “avoid any disruption to its operational capability.
The decision was hailed as a victory in Colorado lawmakers and
condemne
d
in Alabama.
“For two and a half years we’ve known any objective ana
lysis of this
basing decision would reach the same conclusion we did, that
Peterson
Space Force Base is the best home for Space Command,” Sen. John
Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said in a statement. “Most importantly,
this
decision firmly rejects the idea that politics — instead of nat
ional
security — should determine basing decisions central to our nat
ional
security.”
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said the decision “restores integ
rity to the
Pentagon’s basing process and sends a strong message that natio
nal
security and the readiness of our Armed Forces drive our military
decisions.”
Rogers, meanwhile, vowed that his committee will continue an
investigat
ion
into the matter, calling it a “deliberate taxpayer-funded manip
ulation of
the selection process.” He added, “It’s clear t
hat far-left politics, not
national security, was the driving force behind this decision.”
Republican Alabama Sen. Katie Britt echoed his sentiment, saying it
was
irresponsible for Biden to “yank a military decision out of the
Air
Force’s hands in the name of partisan politics.” She sa
id an Air Force
evaluation of the potential locations ranked Huntsville first,
adding t
hat
the decision ”should have remained in the Air Force’s p
urview.”
So how much money was wired to the Biden family account?
Joe doesn't do anything for free.
Good people are always paid for what they're worth.
I reckon you're homeless then?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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