One of our readers the other day sought to suggest it’s unfair to attribute such qualities as courage and cowardice to state and national leaders, but we disagree. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, brought to his current post by then-President George W. Bush and asked to stay by President Barack Obama in 2009, is surely one of the few courageous men still in government, willing to cross swords with fellow conservatives if he believes they’re undermining men and women in harm’s way for political gain.

Americans — especially those intent on shrinking the size of government — should pray and hope that Gates prevails in efforts at even relatively modest cuts in the $700 billion defense budget (not counting war costs), including trimming some 50 generals and admirals from top-heavy ranks. That includes the huge entourages and perks that some enlisted men can only dream about. Gates famously claimed that a decision to approve the sending of a dog-handling team to Afghanistan had to get OKs from no less than five four-star headquarters. Where we come from, that’s crazy. Would the private business sector tolerate such bloated bureaucracy?

This drive by Gates, president of Texas A&M University till Bush brought him to Washington, is worthy of unstinting public approval, especially considering that he’s a lone voice of sanity in Washington and has indicated his plans to retire in 2011. Before then, he hopes to spur the Pentagon to cut $100 billion over five years, targeting everything from contractors with debatable directives or dubious results, to the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., which he sees as so much red tape.

But as when he sought to target defense weaponry that he and Pentagon brass insisted wasn’t needed, Gates is encountering stiff resistance, including from some in Congress who see contractor and military endeavors as robust jobs programs benefiting their individual districts. The only problem is they’re funded with taxpayer money by a government facing the largest deficits in history.

Gates’ position is clear: When soldiers are fighting far-off wars, more money must go to their operations as well as contractors who support them — and not to keep aloft weaponry programs that the Pentagon dismisses as unproven and unneeded, or more layers of federal bureaucracy.

This clarion call should remind us of what the real purpose of the military is. Its primary function is not to serve as economic stimuli for a community, however patriotic that might seem. Congress must see through the military-industrial complex as Gates does and as President Dwight D. Eisenhower did well before him. Bloated government is bloated government, even when it consists of military brass.