Matt makes a good point though about our strategic culture and predisposition toward technological over human solutions.

I think the key to getting our priorities straight is understanding why we default to believing technology is always the best and cheapest answer. Then we need to hold the basis of those beliefs up against the current and most likely future problem set so we can see the limitations of technical solutions.

I also believe we can and should maintain our technological edge - I want to have the best stuff in the fight - I just don't want it so bad that I'm willing to sacrifice investing in people to get it.

I'm pretty sure the two afore mentioned SecDefs were/are great Americans, its just that their management philosophies were more attuned to producing things for a profit then managing a bureaucracy of which the most important "product" is its people (substitute warrior/leader/etc. if you like). I'm not sure you can run the Pentagon (or for that matter the Federal Govt.) like a for profit based corporation - maybe that too is not a problem, just a condition that you cope with the best you can.

I admit to being somewhat amazed by citizens of their caliber (Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld) - for whatever we criticize them as Sec Def or their "vision" (rightfully criticize I think) of how the DoD should function - they were/are brilliant men who love & served their country - they just tried to make something into what it was not, could not or should not be. GM/Ford/Chrysler are not the same as the DoD. In my humble opinion though - I would not want to walk a mile in their shoes for a million dollars.

On a side note about tech:

We got a lecture from Con Crane while at BSAP where he asked the question why we thought the USAF believed technology so important? The answer was so simple and obvious, yet of profound importance - you can't fly without technology! You have to give the platform/system driven services credit for recognizing the importance of technology to their roles and missions. I'd also say you can find where platform an human meet in the ground services in their crewed systems - ala Abrams/Bradley/Stryker/FCS.

On the flip side, we can't allow the fascination and obsession with technology to obscure that people fight the wars and ultimately people make the peace. We need some part of war to be recognizable for the ugly but sometimes necessary act it is so that as quickly as possible we can restore order and put people's lives back together and maybe avoid worse.

Best regards, Rob