major changes under way in the nation's top defense leadership have prompted some analysts to suggest President Barack Obama has embarked on a campaign to overhaul military policy. That may be an excellent idea.
It has been suggested for decades that the military establishment was preparing "to fight the last war." Experience in Iraq and Afghanistan backs that contention.
While our Air Force went into wars in the Middle East with warplanes no country on earth could contend with, our ground troops went into guerrilla wars with vehicles and personal equipment that left them vulnerable to weapons such as roadside bombs.
Yet spending priorities at the Pentagon continue to emphasize big-ticket items such as aircraft carriers and new fighter planes (with, until just weeks ago, plans to spend billions of dollars needlessly on two entirely different engines).
Indeed, the United States must be ready to fight conventional wars against other countries. But Iraq and Afghanistan have shown more needs to be done to cope with threats such as guerrilla warfare and terrorism - conflicts we now know lie in our future.
If new defense officials being installed on Obama's watch understand that, the changes may be the best thing to happen to national defense in decades.
