In the past, it was generally the case that attacks on U.S. weapons systems came from the Left.  Numerous useful weapons, including the AGM-65 Maverick, the M-1 Abrams, the M-2 Bradley, the B-1 Lancer, the AGM-86 ALCM, and the MGM-31 Pershing, have been attacked, ridiculed, and downplayed by leftist interests.  In some cases, as with the B-1, they were quite successful.  (It was canceled outright by Jimmy Carter, though later revived by Ronald Reagan.) In recent years, these campaigns have expanded to include the right.  The F-22 Raptor, after a lengthy campaign, was canceled not by a left-wing ideologue, but the "conservative" Robert Gates, secretary of Defense at the time.  Granted, he canceled it (in the midst of full production, the first time ever this occurred with a targeted weapon, changing the rules of the game completely) at the behest of Barack Obama, but he didn't have to do it, and he later characterized...(Read Full Post)