OBAMA'S DEFENSE CUTS DECIMATING INDUSTRY AND INCREASING UNEMPLOYMENT

NYTIMES: "Bracing for Cuts, Military Firms Shed Workers"

... Lockheed, the world’s largest military company ... has reduced its work force by 10,000, to a total of 136,000, since the beginning of last year.

... Boeing, another big Pentagon contractor, said Tuesday that it would cut the number of executives in its military aircraft business by 10 percent as part of broader consolidation that will eliminate more than 400 jobs.

... The company, which also makes commercial jetliners, has already trimmed 1,700 jobs in its military business as part of a reduction of 10,000 jobs across the company.

... And Northrop Grumman recently announced plans to close troubled shipyards as it considers spinning off its $6 billion shipbuilding business.

Northrop announced in late August that it would lay off 642 workers at its shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., by the end of the year. By 2013, it plans to close a shipyard near New Orleans that employs 4,700 people and shift the work to Pascagoula.

The loss of jobs comes as the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, has canceled or restructured nearly three dozen weapons programs since last year. And as the growth in military spending slows, Mr. Gates is pushing for more overhead cuts and greater efficiency to free money for the most crucial programs.

Pentagon officials have said they are singling out wasteful spending and that the belt-tightening would not necessarily lead to job losses.

But top industry executives say that it would be hard to meet Mr. Gates’s goal of saving $100 billion over the next few years without cutting jobs and closing plants...

MORE UNEMPLOYMENT AND A WEAKER NATIONAL DEFENSE.

GEE, THANKS MR. OBAMA!

(I DON'T THINK CHINA OR THE JIHAD ARE CUTTING THEIR MILITARY SPENDING. NEITHER SHOULD WE - ESPECIALLY NOT IN A RECESSION!)