Always Tomorrow's War

Robert Gates vents:

"I have noticed too much of a tendency towards what might be called “next-war-itis” – the propensity of much of the defense establishment to be in favor of what might be needed in a future conflict. ...it is hard to conceive of any country confronting the United States directly in conventional terms -– ship to ship, fighter to fighter, tank to tank -– for some time to come. The record of the past quarter century is clear: the Soviets in Afghanistan; the Israelis in Lebanon; the United States in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Smaller, irregular forces -– insurgents, guerrillas, terrorists -– will find ways, as they always have, to frustrate and neutralize the advantages of larger, regular militaries. And even nation-states will try to exploit our perceived vulnerabilities in an asymmetric way, rather than play to our inherent strengths."

I hope a president Obama keeps Gates at Defense. They'd get along.