The Sensible Defense Secretary

The new president of United State, President Obama’s decision to retain Defense Secretary Robert Gates of Bush administration was surprising to many outsiders since Obama’s new policy is against Iraq War. Why was the man responsible for the Iraq War retained?

However, we may now understand the reasons after reading the frank and sensible statement by Robert Gates as follows:

“The United States defense secretary Robert Gates recently remarked that when saddled with the financial crisis, the Iraq war and war in Afghanistan, the arms procurement model needs to be revolutionized to reduce costs. He clearly stated that at present, the biggest military challenge to the United States comes from the war in Afghanistan.

Gates was attending the hearing of the senate armed services committee and this is the first time he openly expounded on US military strategy since retaining his position as Defense Secretary. According to him, the US military cannot “purchase everything” at this stage with the deteriorated economy and the enormous cost of two wars,.

Gates acknowledged that there are many problems in the existing procurement model. For example, the lack of procurement experts, the incessant dispute among interested parties and the budgetary instability led to “a number of expensive weapons procurement projects” that have “unacceptable problems” in terms of cost and research and development. In his view, the US joint combat capability of the various arms has progressively improved. However, the equipment procurement projects are “fragmented wars” and appear duplicated and wasteful.

His position is in line with President Obama’s revised policy. Cutting military spending and fixing US domestic finance and economy are appropriate policies of United States.

The United States’ defense budget is the highest in the world. In 2007 military spending was 546.8 billion US dollars, accounting for more than 40 percent of global military spending. This could be the reason most American are in debt! In fact, if the United States only takes care of its national defense and does not worry about other countries’ security, all Americans could still be living a comfortable and safe life.

理智的国防部长

美国新总统奥巴马让布什政府末任国防部长盖茨留任，使很多外人觉得奇怪，奥巴马总统是反对伊拉克战争的，为什么要把负责伊拉克战争的国防部长留任呢？
直到最近读了盖茨国防部长下列的谈话才知道奥巴马要把盖茨留任的原因：
“美国国防部长罗伯特盖·茨近日说：受到金融危机、伊拉克战争和阿富汗战争拖累，武器采购模式亟待革新，以节省开支。他明确提出，现阶段，美国最大的军事挑战来自阿富汗战争。
盖茨当天在参议院军事委员会出席听证会，这是他留任以来首次公开阐述美方军事战略。按照他的说法，现阶段，经济形势恶化，两场战争耗费巨大，美军不能随心所欲地“采购一切”。
盖茨承认，现有采购模式存在诸多问题，如缺乏采购专家、各方面利益争执不断、预算不稳定，导致“一些昂贵的武器采购项目”在成本、研发等方面出现“令人无法接受的问题”。在他看来，美军各兵种联合作战能力日益提高，但装备采购“各自为战”，出现重复、浪费。”
他的主张符合奥巴马总统要改变美国政策的立场，节省军事开销拼好国内金融经济是美国正确的新政策。
美国国防预算高居世界首位，2007年军费开支5468亿美元，占全球军费开支40%以上，这可能就是造成大多数美国人负债的原因，美国如果只管好自己的国防，不要担心他国的安全，所有美国人，将可以安全地过着舒适的生活。