I’m gonna play devil’s advocate here for a minute. This statement by Gates sounds a lot like the statement Admiral Mullen made about the Somali pirates a while back. Mullen (I’m pretty sure it was Mullen) said that the US Navy couldn’t do much about the pirates. My husband and I laughed, because the US Navy has a HUGE base in Djibouti with all kinds of assets.

I think Gates and Mullen are telling other industrialized nations that the US isn’t going to handle global security any more, and are therefore telling our allies that it’s time for them to build their military capabilities.

As the wife of a USAF pilot, I’m very OK with that….