From the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union — Originally published Wednesday, April 8

Defense Secretary Robert Gates entered a minefield Monday as he unveiled a $534 billion budget that would shift the nation’s defense spending from the imagined enemies of the future to the very real ones of today and the foreseeable tomorrow.

America would still spend plenty to protect itself, $20 billion more than this year. What it wouldn’t do, at least not as much, is pour money into exotic weapons that aren’t likely to be used in a fight now or anytime soon, if ever.

Makes sense? You bet. …

Wouldn’t money be better spent on keeping U.S. troops safe today with things like the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, whose V-shaped hull has been shown to deflect much of the blast from buried explosives? …

Wouldn’t money be better spent on intelligence and surveillance programs to track terrorists, many of whom, despite all our technology, remain elusive as ever in mountains and caves? On more helicopters and Special Operations forces focused on counterterrorism?

Try telling that to Congress, whose members raked in nearly $20 million in campaign contributions from the defense industry last year … And who, understandably, worry about their personal political fallout if defense jobs leave their districts. …