DAILY BRIEFING: Air Force chief argues against diverting funds to Army, By Megan Scully, CongressDaily, January 26, 2007

Get used to hearing this story. The near-term threat MUST be countered by something else--typically long term (where China typically comes in).

Here, the USAF Chief takes a far better tack: cut us and you cut our support to ground troops.

Best counter: "Fine. You do need to protect and even expand your support craft. Now let's talk about your platforms not currently in the fight and your long-term plans for acquisitions."

And yeah, that's where the China card gets pulled.

So consider this an opening bid...

Thanks to Steffany Hedenkamp for sending this.