Comment noyer le poisson de la QDR 2005 ?

L’article de Elaine Grossman sur lequel nous avons appuyé un récent “Faits & Commentaires” du 9 juin sur l’état de la QDR 2005, est suivi d’un plus récent, du 16 juin, sur le site “Defense & National Interest”.

L’article de Grossman n’a pas vraiment été apprécié par la hiérarchie du Pentagone. Un adjoint de Rumsfeld, Ryan Henry, a écrit à Inside the Pentagon, la Lettre d’Information où publie Grossman, pour tenter de rétablir certaines affirmations. Grossman cite dans son article la mise au point suivante, après avoir développé un des argumentaires de Henry : «  The letter […] cites this matter and two others as being among “several errors” in ITP’s June 2 story. After extensive reporting over the past several weeks and months, ITP stands by its original article. »

Raison de plus pour lire les dernières nouvelles que nous apporte Grossman. Elles confirment, cette fois, derrière un ton général venu d’échelons plus élevés et prétendant montrer une situation sous contrôle, une dérive de la situation montrant le caractère de plus en plus insaisissable de QDR.2005.

« Defense officials undertaking the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review are debating whether early expectations of a series of “rolling” decisions implemented throughout the assessment can still be fulfilled, Inside the Pentagon has learned. The magnitude of the issues facing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the review — from military force structure changes to new strategies for handling emerging threats — has dictated a relatively deliberative approach that may push the more consequential decisions into autumn, Pentagon officials say.

» “A lot of the high-flying rhetoric is being toned down as we reinvent ourselves,” says one Pentagon official.

» >MI>“There was an ambition to have most decisions made by summer, but that proved to be too tight a timetable,” says Michael Vickers, director of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. “They need to use the full year they were given and perhaps beyond, given the gravity of the challenges they’re tackling.”

(...)

» Although some decisions may yet be made before the QDR is complete, the consensus now inside the Pentagon is that taking early findings up to Capitol Hill to affect FY-06 “is no longer possible,” a Pentagon official said last week.

» It “looks like the dream of influencing [program budget] ’06 execution is probably on life support, if not dead,” acknowledged another. “And so it goes: a continual reinvention of the process.” »

Mis en ligne le 21 juin 2005 à 17H16