Another tropical storm on the way. It's been pouring intermittently since last night. The good news is that TIKI (tm) lights will stay lit in a torrential downpour
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SecDef Gates gets it. He understands that if State isn't able to do all these things which are well outside traditional diplomacy, then Defense is going to have to do them, and that DoD is even less well-suited to do them (by itself) than State is. He understands that even if you accept the federal budget process as a zero-sum game, that DoD is better off if State is given the resources that would enable it to do all these great and wonderful things that would work out to be to DoD's benefit, even if it meant DoD's budget was decreased by that much (so long as the money went to that purpose and wasn't redirected to what someone at State might decide was a more important priority).
Part of the problem (as I see it) is that all these things that, since 2003, everyone's expected State to do are things that State has not been provided the resources (human or otherwise) or direction to do, not for years/decades/since-the-Vietnam-War. USAID? A shadow of its former self and, still, not technically part of DOS anyways.
SecDef Gates gets it. He understands that if State isn't able to do all these things which are well outside traditional diplomacy, then Defense is going to have to do them, and that DoD is even less well-suited to do them (by itself) than State is. He understands that even if you accept the federal budget process as a zero-sum game, that DoD is better off if State is given the resources that would enable it to do all these great and wonderful things that would work out to be to DoD's benefit, even if it meant DoD's budget was decreased by that much (so long as the money went to that purpose and wasn't redirected to what someone at State might decide was a more important priority).
Part of the problem (as I see it) is that all these things that, since 2003, everyone's expected State to do are things that State has not been provided the resources (human or otherwise) or direction to do, not for years/decades/since-the-Vietnam-War. USAID? A shadow of its former self and, still, not technically part of DOS anyways.
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