HE CAN'T CUT IT ENOUGH:

America 'to slash military spending' (Alex Spillius, 05 Apr 2009, Daily Telegraph)

"These are not changes to the margins. This is a fundamental shift in direction," said the Pentagon press secretary, Geoff Morrell.

Mr Gates's plans would still increase the Pentagon's regular budget by four per cent, to $533.7 billion, not counting the daily spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

From the Pentagon's point of view, four per cent is treading water. In the dying days of the Bush administration it prepared plans for a 14 per cent increase. Under Mr Bush, the US defence budget rose to equal the combined defence spending of the next 25 nations.

W managed to keep military spending below 5% of GDP even during the WoT, but now it's time to get it back to a normal pre-WWII sub-3%.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 5, 2009 6:28 PM