Gates thought Airforce was/were/is underutilizing their drone capability and were basically not doing enough for the soldiers and marines in Iraq. And almost anyone who looks into the matter will very likely agree with Gates.
The Airforce doesn’t want anonymous, discrete, unseen drones. The Airforce wants $400,000,000.00 flying Barbaros and winged Big Browns for their future mythic “Knight of the Sky” Heros. The Airforce wants to re-fight World War II, and keeps buying better fighters and bombers to re-win that war.
Not to be picky, but it’s Air Force not Airforce. And the Air Force’s problems aren’t any different than the other services, just getting more attention at this point. Remember the fight Rumsfeld had with top generals??
Drones aren't going to beat the Chinese PLAF someday. We'd better pray for a whole bunch of Raptors and JSFs coming off the lines in the future.