Speaking to the Washington-based New America Foundation, retired Marine Corps Col. Larry Wilkerson—Colin Powell’s top aide during his tenure as Secretary of State—ripped into a host of Bush Administration figures. According to the Washington Post, Wilkerson decried the hijacking of US foreign policy by a “Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal” and referred to current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as “extremely weak.” Wilkerson, a former director of the Marine Corps War College, also lambasted the planners of the Iraq war for incompetence, but qualified his remarks by saying the US must remain in Iraq. He saved one of his more colorful barbs for former Undersecretary of Defense for Plans and Policy Douglas Feith, saying “seldom in my life have I met a dumber man.” Ouch.
The Air Force budget would grow to $234 billion while Space Force spending would shrink to $26 billion under the White House's yearly ask.