boots on the ground or weapons in the sky?

Great story in the Wall Street Journal this morning (alas, not available online) by August Cole and Yochi Dreazen, bearing on the Great Nagl/Gentile Debate that I've regularly cited in this blog. In short: the budget crunch will come in 2009, when domestic priorities will squeeze the Pentagon and force it to choose between Gates's hope to increase Army and Marine Corps personnel, and the generals' unvarying desire to build newer, bigger, faster, and more sophisticated things.

If Gates stays on in an Obama or McCain administration, then the Army may well get the 65,000 additional troops (and the Marines an additional 27,000, which proportionately is a much greater boost). This might also be called the Nagl Solution.

Alternately, the battle might go to Rep John Murtha, who is a big believer in the F-22 Raptor and other major pieces of hardware--the Gentile Solution. It would be an amusing but hardly unprecedented outcome if a Democratic administration ends up fattening the coffers of Lockheed Martin instead of increasing job opportunities in the military. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford