by Andrea Shalal-Esa and Patricia Zengerle of Reuters

U.S. presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain differ on the size of the U.S. military, the Iraq war and how to deal with Iran, but they have similar views on the need to reform Pentagon procurement.

Both Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, and Republican rival McCain, an Arizona senator, have emphasized the need to rein in chronic cost overruns in Pentagon weapons programs, and curb funding for unneeded, outdated weapons systems, but their views diverge on specific programs.

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By City Visitor

General Sir Mike Jackson was a distinguished fighting General who rose to become the "No. 1 Soldier". Now he has a book to sell, and is out in the defence network. As a critic, he suffers from the strong support he gave to the Government he served – and the journalists' noses he put out of joint in the going.

A recent outing was long on analysis, but short on prescriptions – with some of them written on the one hand and then on the other. He did however make two sound points which bear reflection.

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