Gates at AEI: Strategy Must Drive Budget Decisions

In a wonky speech at the American Enterprise Institute this afternoon, departing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reflected on his institutional decisions at the Pentagon and considered issues that his successor must confront. Beyond recapitalizing certain programs and addressing the Pentagon’s overhead costs, Gates argued that the team conducting the comprehensive review must be prepared to consider the strategic cost of further budget cuts. Gates noted that, though efficiencies remain to be found, they will not alone bring the Pentagon’s budget in line with President Obama’s proposed $400 billion reduction: in short, real capabilities must be cut. Gates advocated a clear-eyed approach to budgetary decisions and their effect on American missions:

We need to be honest with the president, with the Congress, with the American people, indeed with ourselves, about what those consequences (of additional defense budget reductions) are:  That a smaller military, no matter how superb, will be able to go fewer places and be able to do fewer things.

Building on this point, the Secretary indicated that the ends should define the means in the defense budget. The comprehensive defense review must take stock of the big picture:

The tough choices ahead are really about the kind of role the American people – accustomed to unquestioned military dominance for the past two decades – want their country to play in the world.

In closing, the outgoing Secretary waxed eloquent on America’s place in the international order:

America does have a special position and set of responsibilities on this planet.  I share Winston Churchill’s belief that “the price of greatness is responsibility…[and] the people of the United States cannot escape world responsibility.”  This status provides enormous benefits – for allies, partners, and others abroad to be sure, but in the final analysis the greatest beneficiaries are the American people, in terms of our security, our prosperity, our freedom.

I know that after a decade of conflict, the American people are tired of war.  But there is no doubt in my mind that the continued strength and global reach of the American military will remain the greatest deterrent against aggression, and the most effective means of preserving peace in the 21^st century, as it was in the 20^th.

Watch the video here and read the Secretary’s remarks here.

Cross-posted from the Enterprise Blog.