That’s how Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld describes the state of US government operations in the 21st century. The substance of his remarks during a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations described the considerable disadvantage facing the US in the public opinion realm compared to violent extremists who have “media relations committees.” Rumsfeld wants to transform DOD’s public affairs force from a reactive, eight-hour-day activity to a proactive 24/7 operation. Without doing so, he says, leaves the US with an “unacceptably dangerous deficiency.”
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.