OPINION  

YESTERDAY WE REPORTED THAT A RUSSIAN ATTACK SUBMARINE PATROLLED THE GULF OF MEXICO FOR DAYS UNDETECTED.  TODAY WE'LL TELL YOU IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS WHAT WE THINK ABOUT THAT.

 If you need to read the story first click here: http://freebeacon.com/silent-running/

In the story by Bill Gertz in the Washington Free Beacon we are told:

 "The submarine patrol also exposed what U.S. Officials said were deficiencies in U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities-forces that are facing cuts under the Obama administration's plan to reduce defense spending by $487 billion over the next ten years"

 Well, we are certainly no fans of the Obama Administration but the President's future plans to gut this important area of national defense had nothing to do with our failure to detect the Russian submarine presence in the Gulf of Mexico this time. Both political parties set the stage for this many years ago. The fact is that the U.S. Navy has never focused a lot of its antisubmarine efforts in the Gulf. The submarine base that Mr. Gertz mentioned in his article that the Russians would certainly like to be able to threaten is in Georgia, separated from the Gulf by the entire Florida Peninsular. The U.S. will not be breaking out attack subs from any Gulf Coast bases in the event of an emergency because there aren't any. So of all the waters where Ivan could make a show of coming in close undetected , the Gulf Coast was the place.

 The Navy didn't put a lot of antisubmarine power in the Gulf even during the Cold War, but that is not to say there was no antisubmarine protection out there. The problems in the Gulf of Mexico include today, as they have for decades, illegal migrants, drug smuggling, illegal fishing, and illegal pollution. These are Coast Guard mission areas. The Coast Guard has always had during the post WWII era, a large presence in the Gulf  for illegal migrant, and drug smuggling interdiction.  It made a lot of sense since they are out there anyway, to equip the major cutters with sonar, trained sonarmen, and antisubmarine weapons. Then the Soviet Union went broke, the Berlin Wall fell, and we declared ourselves the "winners" in the Cold War. Shortly there after both the Democrats and the Republicans began to demand a "peace dividend", every armed service was supposed to cough up a dividend in the form of big cash savings that could only be accomplished by complete program cuts. Even the tiny, over tasked Coast Guard was supposed to cough up millions. So with the Red fleet bottled up in Russian ports for lack of operating funds, the Coast Guard was made to turn in its sonar equipment, disestablish the sonarman rate, and basically drop the anti submarine role.

 So that Russian submarine entered a Gulf of Mexico literally bristling with Coast Guard cutters, looking for drug and illegal migrant smugglers, midnight polluters, and and fish poachers but incapable of detecting an intruding submarine. Who was responsible for this situation? In our opinion the prior crop of idiots in Congress and the White House of both parties and some long gone and retired admirals of both the Navy and Coast Guard who lacked the moral courage to stand up to the administration and the Congress and tell the American people the truth. Would it have cost them their jobs? Yes, of course, but you betray  your oath of office as a military officer if you don't tell the truth to the powers that be. The men who should have done this were flag officers, "losing their job"only meant taking the pension earlier than they had personally planned. Instead we were left with the situation as we have now observed it. Who will correct it? Do you really think the current crop in Washington is going to do anything? Wake up America!,