The Pentagon's new strategy: Show us the money

[unhappycamper]

The Pentagon's new strategy: Show us the money
By William D. Hartung
August 10, 2008

AT FIRST glance, the new national defense strategy released by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently looks like a new start, with much talk of working with allies and - heaven forbid - even other US government agencies.

Gates comes across as the "anti-Rumsfeld," replacing his predecessor's bluster with quiet diplomacy, and an overreliance on military force with a more pragmatic, balanced approach to security. The new strategy document reflects these differences.

This is not the first time that Gates has embraced the themes set out in the new strategy document. In a speech this year at Kansas State University, he called for substantial increases in spending for the State Department, pointing out that there are fewer professional diplomats in the Foreign Service than there are personnel on an average aircraft carrier task force (of which the United States has 12).

But lest his audience think he had truly gone wobbly, Gates also stressed that he did not want these new funds to come at the expense of growing Pentagon budgets.

The defense secretary seems to want to have it both ways - to prepare for conventional and irregular warfare; to get civilian help on tasks like reconstruction, development, and governance while institutionalizing the Pentagon's own capabilities in these areas; to have a strategic dialogue with China while maintaining US dominance; and to seek stronger alliances while opposing anything that would limit US "freedom of action" - even though real alliance-building generally requires limiting one's freedom of action.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/08/10/the_pentagons_new_strategy_show_us_the_money/



uhc comment: The last time I looked, the 2009 military budget was $903,700,000,000. $735,700,000,000 baseline and $168,000,000,000 to continue the occupations.