The biggest challenge our defense establishment faces is one of institutional inertia.

The pace and tenor of our lives has been irrevocably altered by the acceleration of change.

Our defense strategy must contend with non-state and transnational actors; a rising economic and military powerhouse in China.

We have to contend with increasing personnel and procurement costs at a time when defense budgets are decreasing.

Deploying large numbers of American military forces onto foreign soil to nation-build vice accomplishing a defined mission is counter-productive.

We got stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan because we cared about the political outcomes of those countries afterwards.

The nature of this future battlefield... makes that unavoidable.

I do expect that we will be fighting away games because, quite frankly, that is a premise of our national security strategy.

No doubt about that as was true in the Cold War as well in Central America and Grenada and the threats from Cuba.

For the life of our country, we have mostly thought away games, especially in the last 100 years.

It is $25 billion in debt. And while the program does help some Americans with moderate incomes, as well as farmers, it also takes money from working-class Americans to subsidize beach homes for the rich.