Gates: Military needs a better mix of skills

Gates: Military needs a better mix of skills
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 5, 2008 13:33:50 EST

The U.S. must seek a better balance in its “portfolio of capabilities” to support the irregular conflicts most likely to dominate the foreseeable future, while continuing to fund conventional modernization programs, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says.

But Gates, in an article to be published in the January edition of the policy journal Foreign Affairs, sounded cautionary notes about defense spending, saying that the U.S. “cannot expect to eliminate national security risks through higher defense budgets, to do everything and buy everything,” and that the Pentagon has to “set priorities and consider inescapable tradeoffs and opportunity costs.”

Within such constraints, Gates argued, the U.S. needs to institutionalize funding support for the more likely near-term prospect of irregular conflict, such as in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet also modernize its nuclear arsenal so as to continue to deter potential superpower aggression.

And he said that military culture itself must continue to shift to reflect the near-term dominance of irregular warfare and the nation-building skills it demands.

“One of the enduring issues the military struggles with is whether personnel and promotions systems designed to reward the command of American troops will be able to reflect the importance of advising, training, and equipping foreign troops,” Gates wrote — “something still not considered a career-enhancing path for the best and brightest officers.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/military_gates_philosophy_121508w/%2e