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For calling for 2008 fiscal defense appropriation funds to allow more F-22 Raptor fighters to be built. Buying additional F-22s beyond the 183 planned would be a tragic misdirection of billions of dollars more urgently needed to better arm and protect the close-combat soldier. If evidence were needed of where defense spending should be prioritized, take a look at the infantryman kill ratio chart in this issue’s cover story.

Yes, the Air Force needs new tankers; yes to F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. But no to more Cold War-era planes when the highest priority should be adapting to the demands of fighting a global counterinsurgency.

The House Appropriations subcommittee chairman has become light-headed on the same jet fumes that the Air Force leadership inhales.