Air Force not doing enough for the War Effort –SECDEF

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Air Force must do more for war, Gates says

Pentagon chief: Getting aircraft to Iraq, Afghanistan ‘like pulling teeth’

AP–WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are “stuck in old ways of doing business.”

Gates complained in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been “like pulling teeth.”

The Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to do more and to undertake more creative ways of thinking about helping the war effort.

He said he has been trying for months to get the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, like the pilotless Predator drone that provides real-time surveillance video, to the battlefield.

“Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it’s been like pulling teeth,” Gates said. “While we’ve doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough.”

To push the issue harder, Gates said he established last week a Pentagon-wide task force “to work this problem in the weeks to come, to find more innovative and bold ways to help those whose lives are on the line.”