The SECDEF we need

ARTICLE: A Single-Minded Focus on Dual Wars, By Greg Jaffe, Washington Post, May 15, 2009

Great piece by Jaffe. Makes me angry to read it though.

All those complaints over the years about SECDEFs that micromanage ops while the bureaucracy fails to provide and here's a guy doing his level best to fix the latter and you still get these whiny officers complaining that somebody from up high is micromanaging their incompetence.

Comments

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Gates has a mountain to climb . . Excluding the Administration, he has an incompetent Congress to deal with, the Pentagon, which for the most part, a building full of separate agendas, and as you say, lots of incompetent Officers . .

The man has to be considered a Patriot for just remaining in the Position . . Or . . should we question his sanity . . ?

[William R. Cumming]

Trying never to look at motives but only deeds, Secretary Gates has given some real markers that he may be a great great SECDEF. Very unusual path as to how his personal history and past mistakes in that career have led to this point in time and potential greatness would be very difficult in my mind to predict from his past. I still wish that DOD would focus on warfighting and not drain the necessary funding from STATE DEPT. and and the civil organizations needed so much in our democracy (republic) and apparently needed so much elsewhere in the world.