Obama’s priorities

February 14, 2012 | Filed under Barack Obama,Middle East,Military | Posted by

Obama

Two stories I thought might be worth juxtaposing if only to help us all see more clearly as November approaches.

First up, Obama to cut combat pay:

Service members now will receive imminent danger pay only for days they actually spend in hazardous areas, Pentagon officials said here today.

The change, which took effect yesterday, was included in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law Dec. 31.

“Members will see the prorated amount in their Feb. 15 pay records,” Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby said.

The act called for DOD to pay service members imminent danger pay only for the time they spend in areas that qualify for the pay. In the past, service members received $225 per month if they spent any time that month in an area where the pay was authorized. “This is a more targeted way of handling that pay,” Kirby said.

Next up, Obama to send nearly a billion dollars to ‘Arab Spring’ Islamic radicals:

President Barack Obama proposed a $770 million aid package Monday for Arab countries undergoing democratic revolutions.

If approved, the “Middle East and North Africa Incentive Fund” will “incentivize long-term economic, political and trade reforms — key pillars of stability — by supporting governments that demonstrate a commitment to undergo meaningful change and empower their people.”

The money is listed in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget (which starts this October) for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is responsible for economic development and humanitarian assistance.

The aid package would be on top of the $1.3 billion in annual military funding that the U.S. already sends Egypt, which remained unchanged in the budget proposal.

Cut combat pay.  Increase funding to radicals in the Middle East.

Hope and change anyone?

« « The Key to Unelecting 0bama? Letting Him Do What He Does (ZeroHedge)
VIDEO: Utah’s Mia Love at CPAC » »

Shortlink:

Posted by on February 14, 2012.
Filed under Barack Obama, Middle East, Military.
I blog more regularly at my own place where plain thoughts are delivered roughly. My about page gives you more on who I am.

Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Up to 90% off top rated local fun!

  • Pingback: Brutally Honest

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    With all three of those “Arab Spring” countries going full-tilt radical islamist, good luck in getting that aid through Congress.

    Of course, Obama cares less and less about the law or Constitution, and has been abusing his authority with a cynical determination.

  • Commander_Chico

    This is what happens when you have non-veterans demagoguing an issue to a mostly non-veteran demos.

    Imminent danger (aka “combat”) pay is a funny issue.  I collected it when I was working on a staff in Naples, Italy during Operation Allied Force in 1999, because someone had raised the spectre of Serbian special operations attacking US bases in Italy.  Nothing ever happened, of course.  I was able to collect the full month’s danger pay for a couple of half-months at the beginning and end of my tour.  It was a delightful tour, I gained at least five pounds eating out on “combat” pay and per diem.

    They’re paying it to troops in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain right now, even though there have been zero combat casualties there for years.  Turkey, Bosnia and Kosovo, too. 

    I checked, and they are paying to anyone in the Mediterranean right now.

    (pdf) http://comptroller.defense.gov/fmr/07a/07a_10.pdf

    The other big issue is that any aircrew that overfly many (not all) of these areas get the full month’s pay – so if you fly a C-17 to Udeid AB and spend a day there and return to Dover AFB, that’s one month’s “combat” pay. Even flying on the great circle route from Dover AFB to Diego Garcia, since that will probably take you over Saudi Arabia.
    http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=DOV-NKW

    Or, since the Med is now in the zone, maybe anyone flying from NAS Rota to NAS Sigonella.

    I would pay servicemembers the full month and increase the amount, but only to those who are really in a dangerous place.   Narrow the scope of who can collect it – not guys working on Incirlik Air Base, on a sub in the Med, flying over the Med or Turkey, or kicking back on Udeid AB in Qatar.

    More “combat” pay for infantrymen in Afghanistan, none for staffies in Turkey.

    The State/USAID money is a kind of bribe for the new governments and their leaders. Buying influence. It’s a waste, but a pittance compared to the money being burned up in similar programs in Iraq and Afghanistan now and in the past.

  • Gmacr1

    It’s easy to note what he approves of and doesn’t. Dear leader openly lavishes his friends and punishes those he disdains.

    CC, remf’s shouldn’t get paid for something they didn’t earn.

    • Commander_Chico

      Who was I to argue with DOD about how dangerous it was in Naples in the spring and summer of ’99?  Chico the REMF didn’t feel like he was in danger, but they don’t give you a choice to get paid or not.  One of those things about the military – you take the good with the bad.

      • http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

        And as I pointed out – it ain’t the grunts that decide where they can get danger pay.

        It’s funny – late ’70s I was aircrew in C-130s.  We were doing a training drop out of Pope AFB, and I heard one of the paratroops say (with great pride) “I get paid $55 a month to jump out of an airplane!”  I hear the loadmaster reply “I get paid $80 a month to stay in it!”

        • Commander_Chico

          Well, you deserved it – just for the noise and the cold in those things.

          • http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

            I’d still rather fly in the back end of a C-130 than fly commercial these days.  Just TRY to get a flight attendant to let you string up a hammock. They look at you like you’re wierd or something…

          • Commander_Chico

            It’s not like a P-3, where you can cook steak and eggs in the galley and lay down in a real bed.

          • http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

            Envy….  ;-)

            “P-3 Airlines. We’re not fast. We’re not cheap. But we’ve got steaks… and beds.”

            Hmmm…

      • SCSIwuzzy

        Fobbits, they wants our precious

    • http://www.rustedsky.net JLawson

      In all fairness, it’s not like the troops are designating the areas they’re getting danger pay.

  • jim_m

    for Arab countries undergoing democratic revolutions.

    This is obviously a subterfuge since there are no democracies springing up in the middle east, they are all becoming islamic states.  Unless, of course, you call Iran a democracy, but if that’s the case then you considered the Soviet Union a democracy too.

    Then again maybe he intends to pay it out anyway.  He’s always had a spoft spot for the enemies of the US.

    • Commander_Chico

      They just had elections in Tunisia and Egypt which were judged to be free and fair by international observers.  Democracy does not depend on you liking who they elected. 

      So far, the results aren’t much different from some counties in the USA cracking down on liquor and porn on the basis of explicitly religious appeals to the electorate.

      • jim_m

        True.  But democracy DOES depend on who gets elected and what they do once in office.  We are seeing that first hand here with a President who believes that he can rule be decree.  Thy had elections in Iran and once the islamists took over democracy was effectively dead.

        And Tunisia appears to be the exception to the rule.  Everywhere else it looks as though the islamists are getting the upper hand.  If that is the case in Egypt I would not hold my breath for democratic reform.  And we wil have obama to thnk for it because he was the one pressing for early elections before more secular oriented parties could organize themselves.

        • Commander_Chico

          The money that State and USAID spends is to help “secular oriented parties” to organize themselves, along with Islamists friendly enough to participate in US funded programs.

          Turkey is also going to have a big role moderating the MB in Egypt – I am cautiously optimistic that this will help a trend towards democracy and away from extremism in Islam.  Tom Friedman once said it might be a good thing for the MB to be elected and have to govern – if the electorate wanted Islamism, let them have a taste of it.

          If 25% of Egypt voted for Salafis and 47% for the MB, “secular oriented parties” aren’t going to have a chance for a long time.

  • Commander_Chico

    Best Wizbang comment evah! 

    You’ve summed up everything this website has been trying to say for the last 3 years.