With military at ‘turning point,’ defense chief Leon Panetta avoids bold moves

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/with-military-at-turning-point-defense-chief-leon-panetta-avoids-bold-moves/2012/09/03/6188c902-f297-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html


Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images - Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s approach reflects a management style that throughout his career has placed a premium on consensus over major reforms and collegiality over bold thinking, said officials who have worked with him.

For most of the past year, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has stressed that the vast military complex over which he presides is at a “strategic turning point.”

A decade of grinding guerrilla war is drawing to a close. Defense budgets are shrinking. The implication is that major changes are coming to the military.

So far, however, Panetta has cut few major weapons programs and steered clear of any bold moves aimed at remaking the military for this new era. The watchword for Panetta’s tenure, senior defense officials said, has been “humble.”

“He’s told the service chiefs to be humble in their predictions of warfare,” one senior official said.