congressmen, we elect senators, we elect presidents. To a certain extent, the government has its own inertia, it has its own momentum. To what extent is that sort of mentality embedded in the departmental and institutional apparatus of the United States government, and how much of that is a force that we're contending with when we want to try and introduce arms controls and rules of the road, which is something I want to get into in this conversation as well? Well, bureaucratic politics is a fact of life. I mean, the Pentagon is the largest bureaucracy in the United States, and the number one goal of every bureaucracy is self-perpetuation. So if you have, if suddenly you were to say, the Chinese are not a threat to US-based assets, that would make a big drop in the Air Force budget. So there is a bureaucratic impetus to constantly see a rising threat. Now, that doesn't mean it's not there, it just means that the bureaucracy is going to emphasize threats and de-emphasize opportunities. (48/57)
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