You want an illustration of how devastatingly draconian the impending defense budget cuts are going to be? Try this on for size: no more military jets flying over sporting events.

Oh, the humanity!

According to USA Today, looming sequestration is forcing the US Air Force to put a hold on all such flyovers starting April 1st. Oddly though, Air Force spokeswoman Wendy Varhegyi – even as she breaks the sad news about the temporary hold on sporting event flyovers – says “It’s no additional cost to the government for support of any public events.”

Huh. So…why are they affected by budget cuts? Oh, because those fighter pilots are usually on a training exercise when they fly over football stadiums, and we’ll have less of those after cuts. Pity. Kind of like President Obama last week getting upset about having one less American warship patrol the Persian Gulf.

But here’s the real sob story:

The Air Force views the flyovers as a way to engage the public. “Even for just 90 seconds, it is awareness,” Varhegyi said. “It’s just a great way that we can have connection with the American people and have that awareness to large groups of people, not to mention how patriotic everybody is.”

Oh no! Without the completely unnecessary flyovers, we’ll never be able to sustain the level of jingoism and ultra-nationalist adoration for killing machines that we have now!!