posted April 15, 2003 at 11:32 a.m. MDTSo really ... Rumfeld and his pal Cheny (with howling-bat Perle hanging from a nearby crack in the plaster) are like kids in the candy-store, while State is ... well ... well, shit!
Foreign Affairs Council | Task Force Report: Secretary Powell's State Department " ... Seven blue-ribbon panels between 1998 and January 2001 detailed the disastrous impacts of 1990s budget cuts that reduced funding for the administration of foreign affairs from $5.05 billion in 1994 to $3.98 billion in 1996 to $3.64 billion in 2000 (expressed in constant 1996 dollars). For example, the 1998 Stimson Center report focused on State's "woefully inadequate" information technology. The 1999 OPAP report highlighted "decrepit facilities" that placed America's overseas presence "near a state of crisis". The January 2001 CFR-CSIS report detailed "serious workforce shortfalls" that left State "short in mission, organization, and skills relative to what is needed to navigate our way sensibly through the new international universe." [emph. added h_b]
