Defense Spending "On the Table"

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Remember the better equipment the safer the troops....

Not necessarily. Sec. Gates is still trying to fix the mess that Rumsfeld caused through his focus on high-falutin' high tech weaponry at the expense of the stuff that actually keeps the troops safe.

I heard an interview with Gates (an absolutely terrific SecDef, IMHO) the other day in which he stated that the toughest part of his job is fighting all the vested interests with their big, useless (in terms of real national defense) spending programs.

He said that, despite his best efforts, DoD still spends billions on programs/initiatives/contract support that do little, if anything, to support the troops or our nation's defense and fighting to eliminate/reduce them is the toughest part of his job.