Just as "amateurs argue tactics while professionals argue logistics" I would suggest considering the following twist on that logic:

"Amateurs argue programs and platforms while professionals argue policies."

A hard scrub of platforms and programs is at the heart of the QDR process, and is a massive game of inter-service head butting. But a hard scrub of just two or three outdated policies could sweep the table of dozens of programs and platforms across service lines in one stroke; and similarly create a new focus for those same services at the same time.

I was personally and professionally floored when I was politely told by the very smart, very nice DASD running a QDR group that I worked in that "we would work the programs first, and then get to policies later."

So, months of effort to debate and rack and stack programs and platforms based on old policies; then once that is done, create new policies, that will have to fit the military we have just built? I didn't get it then. I still don't get it. But I see the effects of it in both the QDR programmatic decisions and the post QDR policy positions that have been coming out.