Robert M. Gates Quotes
The troops are at war, but the Pentagon is not.
See {637982} for one of the major reasons.
Robert M. Gates, U. S. Secretary of Defense (Republican, Director of the CIA, Criticizing the Pentagon for slowness in not getting the weapons and equipment that were needed for Afghanistan and Iraq, Quoted in Ashton B. Carter “Running the Pentagon Right”, Foreign Affairs, January / February 2014
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The Congress wants to keep control of exactly what the Pentagon buys so that each member can try to get more than his fair share of the Federal dollar. But the Congressional budget process is usually slow, and with the recent Congresses they can hardly get anything done. The President nor the Secretary of Defense cannot stop or slow down procurements that are not needed or can be deferred and spend the already appropriated funds on emergency needs for the troops fighting in the field.
Robert Michael Gates is an American intelligence analyst, and university president who served as the 22nd United States secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011. He was originally appointed by President George W. Bush and was retained for service by President Barack Obama. Gates began his career serving as an officer in the United States Air Force but was quickly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gates served for 26 years in the CIA and the National Security Council, and was Director of Central Intelligence under President George H. W. Bush. After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, that studied the lessons of the Iraq War.
