Secretary Gates described these decisions as the product of 'a holistic assessment of capabilities, requirements, risks and needs for the purpose of shifting the department in a different strategic direction.'
Gates emphasized the strategic basis for recent defense budget changes.
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the only way I could get significant new or additional equipment to commanders in the field in weeks or months--not years--was to take control of the problem myself through special task forces and ad hoc processes.
I think part of the problem is that at the end of the Cold War, we were affected by triumphalism or hubris, whatever you want to call it.
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