Gates' balancing act
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 2:57AM ARTICLE: US defense chief cites 'militarization' of US foreign policy, AP, July 15, 2008
There is the inevitable "reset" of the military in terms of stuff that happens when much of the gear we sent to Iraq gets sent back to the U.S. for rehab (through Turkey, it would seem, to mend some fences with the economic boomlet that should accompany this flow), then there is the inevitable "reset" in terms of roles and missions. Gates is addressing the latter here, putting down a marker, as he has so many times in the recent past, for a more balanced USG approach. Because he doesn't want DoD getting stuck holding too much of the bag next time, he argues for plussing-up the capacity of other agencies in the meantime.
It's a careful balancing act: Gates doesn't want the military to slip into next-war-itis but he also doesn't want the Pentagon thinking that the interagency process will be as lopsided next time as it was this last one, so he has to argue in both directions at different times/venues/audiences.
Tricky bit, but he does it well.
(Thanks: Rory Stolzenberg)
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