Defense Secretary disses the Air Force

I asked my friend Mary, who used to be in the Air Force, what she thought of Gates' remarks yesterday. This is her response:

I heard just a snippet about it on the radio yesterday, but thought it was just odd - why would you go public with an internal squabble like that? And it seems like there shouldn't even BE a squabble - the SecDef tells the forces what to do, and they do it (or so I thought!). It's very strange.

Here's what Gates said:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/world/iraq/bal-te.gates22apr22,0,2361752.story

baltimoresun.com
April 22, 2008
Gates says Air Force must step up effort in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Peter Spiegel

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that U.S. military services are not doing enough to support soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, singling out the Air Force for adapting too slowly to the new enemies on those battlefields.

In unusually harsh public criticism, Gates said his attempts to get the Pentagon to help commanders more quickly on the ground have been "like pulling teeth," and he blamed military leaders who are "stuck in old ways of doing business."

He said he was particularly upset with the military's failure to get more unmanned spy planes into the air over the two war zones - primarily an Air Force responsibility. While the number of drones has doubled in recent months, Gates has set up a task force to push for even more.

"We can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," Gates said. "Our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield."

The criticism comes in the midst of a tense period for Gates and the Air Force. The Defense secretary has fought a series of increasingly acrimonious internal battles against the Air Force leadership, who have pushed for dozens of new F-22 fighter planes and resisted more drone deployments. In doing so, the Air Force has failed to focus its energies on the wars at hand, Gates has charged.