Loren Thompson also warned that the civil sector might not be around to bail out defense, agreeing with AIA’s John Douglass (see above). The trade deficit was $100 billion in 2006, reached $400 billion in 2004, is $800 billion today, and will surpass a trillion dollars in 2010, Thompson said. In the last five years, commercial manufacturing consistently has declined, “with 43,000 manufacturing jobs going away every day,” Thompson noted. “The US is de-industrializing” and this begs the question of what the nation would do to “mobilize for a prolonged conflict.”
F-35As from the Vermont Air National Guard have deployed to Puerto Rico in recent days, continuing a major buildup of U.S. Air Force assets in Latin America aimed at combating drug trafficking and pressuring the regime of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
