Dueling QDR's

Two “different” takes on the Quadrennial Defense Review, by Slate’s Fred Kaplan and TCS’s Melana Zyla Vickers. The titles are strikingly divergent: “Rumsfeld Surrenders…” vs. “A Revolutionary Review…” I’ve read a number of columns by both of these writers, and they both seem intelligent and well-informed about military technology and weapons systems. Wow, seems as if they must’ve read two different reports, right? Obviously, they have different perspectives. Slate gets dismissed as slanted left by some of my “conservative” friends, but I think it is one of the best, truly “balanced” sites I’ve come across. (I can, and perhaps will, support this in detail, but leave it for now.) But it is fair to say Kaplan (like myself) is no Bush fan. Vickers, on the other hand, like many of her TCS colleagues, seems duty-bound to carry water for the Bush administration. But, if you read carefully, these two writers end up saying very similar things: There are Big Ideas in the QDR, all about taking the military to a new generation of technology and tactics, but the reality is that we are spending huge amounts on old “legacy” cold war inspired weapons systems, and the QDR leaves them intact. In times of runaway budgets…

… new areas of endeavor can only come at the price of old, less useful areas. The old stuff, including short-range fighter programs and Navy surface combatants among others, has to be cut… That's not going to be easy. … Congress is set in its ways, and politicians devoted to the weapons built or housed in their constituencies will try any argument to keep them from getting cut in favor of new ones. Consider that since the 1980s, despite the sea-change of the Cold War's end and new military circumstances, Congress has eliminated only about a dozen weapons systems.

The above quote come from… Vickers, who touts the QDR as “revolutionary.” Congress, reluctant to cut weapons systems, any weapons system regardless of need or efficacy? I’m shocked, shocked! And this was Kaplan’s main point. Something’s got to give, and the QDR doesn’t even pretend to address this, it not only leaves intact but actually expands Cold War era weapons projects like nuclear subs and short-range fighters--some revolution!

Advantage… Kaplan!