A Plea for Better USAF Arguments

I think of this mainly as an effort to improve the quality of arguments in favor of the independent USAF. To my mind, such a case must grant that the following priors are at least contestable:

1. The strategic bombing arguments made in favor of the founding of the USAF were empirically and theoretically problematic.
2. The performance of the USAF in the first half of the Cold War demonstrated serious organizational deficiencies.
3. Airpower and the Air Force are not the same thing.

That may sound restrictive, but there are a universe of arguments in favor of independence that can nevertheless satisfy all three.  For example, technological change has remedied the (admittedly problematic) strategic bombing theories of the interwar period; the shift of the USAF in a tactical direction after Vietnam has remedied the (admittedly significant) problems of the early Cold War; and while having an independent USAF is not the only way to maintain American airpower, it’s likely the optimal institutional constellation.

I don’t believe those arguments, but I can take them seriously.