Strategic plan of US air force

March 2003 US led invasion of Iraq with devastating air bombardments, arson and looting destroyed electricity and water installations and all other utilities. Iraq's oil refineries, oil industry, factories, hospitals, communication-road and rail, bridges, schools and colleges, and thousands of houses and shops were bombed by the USAF. Washington did not calculate the economic and human damage done to Iraq by American invasion and bombing. It was brushed aside as collateral damage. Charles J Hanley of the Associated Press in his thought provoking commentary writes, " Flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into Iraq has risen. It could drown US economy."

The war on terror is a key challenge. US Air Force destroyed Afghanistan by merciless bombing. Despite Tora Bora bombings using Daisy Cutters, and now use of Predator and Raeper drones destroying Afghan and Pakistani villages with Hellfire missiles, Taliban are far from being defeated. Now USAF generals are talking that the USAF has to be prepared "to offer the president sovereign options across a full spectrum of global or regional conflicts." In the regional wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, USAF had full command of the air, because Iraqi militants and Taliban in Afghanistan had no air power to challenge the USAF. Situation will be different in case of attack on Iran. It will be a challenge, when Russia and China are sucked into and confronted at some future date.

The new strategic plan released at the mid-point of General Mosley's four year term as chief of staff comes as the entire US military engages in an increasingly intense internal debate over how the armed forces should be restructured when the war in Iraq ends. Hillary Clinton wants troops from Iraq to be deployed in Afghanistan. The US Air Force had asked for the incredibly expensive 381 F-22 Raptor fighters, with a price tag of dollars 140 each i.e. 5.334 trillion dollars.

In its 2009 budget submitted to the US Congress in February 2008, the White House approved the multi-year plans to buy 183 new F-22 Stealth Fighters costing dollars 2.562 trillion dollars. Unable to meet the cost of Iraq war, where on earth is America going to find such massive amounts for the USAF? But the war-industry mafia supports the USAF request for new Raptor fighters and Predator and Raeper drones, even if every American has to pay the debt for generations to come. Iraq war is being fought with borrowed money.

In preparation for the attack on Iran, hundreds F-15 fighter-bombers, B-52 bombers and dozens of deadly B-1 bombers have been deployed at air bases in Qatar, Kuwait, and Deago Garcia in the Indian Ocean. This force could also be used to bomb the Taliban-Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. USAF strategy and plans have implications for Russia, China and Pakistan. The air forces of all the affected countries need to cooperate, and work out joint air plans for the defence of their air space, and national security.