Gates: Reject tendency to focus on 'Next-War-itis'

[IDemo]

Associated Press
By LOLITA C. BALDOR – 2 hours ago

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The Pentagon must focus on current war demands, even if it means straining the U.S. armed forces and devoting less time and money on future threats, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.

Meeting the war-fighting needs of the troops now and taking care of them properly when they get home must be the priority, Gates said in a speech to a journalists at a seminar here sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"I have noticed too much of a tendency towards what might be called Next-War-itis — the propensity of much of the defense establishment to be in favor of what might be needed in a future conflict," Gates said.

But in a world of limited resources, he said, the Pentagon must concentrate on building a military that can defeat the current enemies: smaller, terrorist groups and militias waging irregular warfare.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gnPpwRiOsjgI0z57NytZve0-sHMgD90KTVGO0

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I interpreted the headline entireley differently, my mistake.

[IDemo]

1. Gates seems to be pushing the nex-war-itis himself:

In a question-and-answer session with his audience, Gates was asked whether the U.S. would at some point feel compelled to take military action against Iran for its support of Shiite extremists in Iraq.

Gates said the U.S. has a number of activities under way "to deal particularly with what the Iranians were doing in support of the special groups and others in Iraq." The term "special groups" refers to extremist elements of Shiite militias that U.S. officials say are funded and trained by Iranians.

He said that the Iraqis' recent operations in Basra led to the discovery of substantial caches of Iranian-supplied weapons, and "awakened them (the Iraqis) to the reality of the magnitude of Iranian meddling in Iraq."

"We're being very aggressive in going after the networks in Iraq, and the individuals who are interfering or supplying weapons from Iran," Gates said. "We have a number of other activities under way. We take it very seriously. But at this point our activities are focused pretty exclusively inside Iraq."