Defence budget

Robert Gates changes the Pentagons prioritiesMORE men at the expense of machines; more drones rather than top-end fighter jets and future bombers; more helicopters for combat troops rather than a replacement for the presidential chopper; more coastal vessels and fewer aircraft-carriers; better cyberdefences, but scaled-back missile defences and laser weapons. In short, the new American defence budget would spend more on todays wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and less to stave off future threats from China or Russia. The proposals have delighted those who think America will fight irregular small wars for the foreseeable future, and horrified those who believe it must be ready to fight big conventional ones. John McCain thinks the 2010 budget is a major step in the right direction. But a fellow Republican senator, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, muttered of disarming America.