1$ Trillion Later

[gute]

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/08/30/1-...x-it-mr-gates/

If you were Mr. Gates what would you do?

[Oppenheimer]

Fire everyone in the ranks of E-9, O-6 through O-10, and GS-13 through SES...start over.

[Ken White]

Wheeler's a twit and I pay little attention to him. He deliberately obfuscates and use hyperbole to make his points. That's okay on a discussion board but not a good plan for a would be pundit...

OTOH, I do strongly agree with Oppenheimer and I say that with full knowledge, having been in two of those categories...

[gute]

I found this part of his article to be suprising.

Donald Rumsfeld (2001–2006) is generally acknowledged to be the most incompetent secretary of defense since — well — Donald Rumsfeld (1975–1977).

I'll go with Les Aspin.

[Ken White]

all but him, Cohen and Gates. Louis Johnson was hands down the worst, followed closely by Charley Wilson. Les Aspin was definitely in the bottom third. Rumsfeld is about in the middle of the pack.

Melvin Laird was the best so far IMO, though Gates may catch and even pass him. Weinberger, Carlucci and Schlesinger were really good. Those five plus Marshall and Perry round out the top third IMO.

Rumsfeld was a meddler and micro manager but he also did some good things. Wheeler merely shows his ignorance and biases in saying Rumsfeld was the worst...

[Pete]

Military spending always goes down when a war ends that has nearly bankrupted the country. The DoD R & D commands will have to suck it up, or maybe even downsize their force structures and expectations. The current threats to U.S. security are from low-tech terrorists and insurgents, not from hypothetical weapons that might be invented by some foe. For the time being our main priority should be funding for the Operations and Maintenance subcategory of the budget, and also for rebuilding the stuff sent back from overseas now in CONUS depots.

The time isn't right now for increased DoD spending, but that will change in three or four years.