What happens when you cut the Air Force's pet program

While Tom Ricks is away from his blog, he has selected a few of his favorite
posts to re-run. We will be posting a few every day until he returns. This
originally ran on June 1, 2009.

Defense Secretary Gates's aircraft starts having mechanical problems when he is on the far side of the planet.
Hmm.

"You say you need to be in Manila tonight, Mr. Secretary? Wow, tough
deadline. Now, about those F-22s..."