I would tend to agree with you and Gates.

Democrats typically want to slash all defense spending, except in their own districts. Republicans tend to want more defense spending, especially in their own districts.

I often talk about how much fat there is in government. The DoD is no exception. In fact, it's often the Bad Example I can use to show how bloated some government programs can get.

The bitch will be splitting off effective and necessary spending from defense pork. It isn't all about the money, either. There are turf wars and unnecessary duplication between the services like you wouldn't believe. I remember the hell Rumsfeld went through just trying to cut out that one Crusader artillery program.