A War Budget

Fred Kaplan likes Gates's budget:

After Gates was confirmed as George W. Bush's defense secretary in December 2006, he gave several speeches outlining major reforms that his successor should undertakein weapons procurement, promotion policy, and the whole careerist culture inside the Pentagon. (With only two years in office, combined with a plateful of crises in Iraq and elsewhere, he knew he wouldn't have time to take those steps himself.) When he stayed on at Barack Obama's request, and thus became his own successor, many wondered whether he would turn his words into action.

With this budget, he has begun to do just that.

More reaction here, here, and here.

(Photo: Haraz N. Ghanbari-Pool:Getty Images).