Lead by example. At least it says it on Detective Spooner’s badge. The new administration wants a 10% cut in the defense budget, during a war no less. Where would one start?
The best place to start and prove one is serious about cutting defense expense would be to remove the office of the secretary of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The people appointed to these positions are nothing more than temporary help that have to be brought up to speed on everything once they arrive. They don’t bring anything to the fight. Nothing. They are a symbol of headquarters largess that we just can’t afford. All of the expensive executive office furniture, office supplies, travel expense, perks of all shapes and sizes, bloated staff including PowerPoint warriors and sycophants, is unaffordable. The Department of Defense has a senior civilian leader. That person is Gates and crew.
The proposed defense cuts are huge. Getting rid of these palace puppies should be an easy decision. Re-roll the HQ staff under the top 4 star of the service and press on.
Alas thos secretaries are appointed on factional, regional and arms company (favouring Lockheed) lines.The point is they represent constituencies interested in getting their cut of the actual 800 Billion dollar defense budget.Nothing to do with organisational or combat effeciency.Pete
Actually, I disagree….As bad as civilians are at running the Pentagon, the uniformed services are worse….Look at the procurement issues, where the uniformed military has become ascendant.Also, the ratio of officers to men has gone from 1:10 to 1:5, and there are more General officers now than at the height of WWII, (1.5m active duty vs 13m active duty).Cut the number of officers, eliminate up or out, which requires officers to get promotions or leave the service, etc.And then take some of the money spent and use it to <>increase pay and benefits for senior NCOs<>.
Also close the US Merchant Marine Academy. Our merchant marine is very small and could be manned by ex-Navy and ex-Coast Guard officers the same way our airlines draw most of their pilots from the US military.Look at the boon doggles many of the staff have been on.
I wouldn’t mind seeing that happen, provided there were Deputy SecDefs for either the branches, or perhaps, Airpower, Landpower, and Seapower. My concern then would be that each service would “own” that DepSecDef and try to play turf wars to no good end, such as the USAF trying to assume control of all air assets.