Along with congressional committees and defense industries, the third leg of the iron triangle that makes reform so hard is the military services themselves. Builder's provocative book is institutional profile at its best, probing far beyond the flip phrases that usually describe the essence of each service, e.g., that the air force likes things it can fly. His conclusion is not optimistic: political reform from the top "will only succeed in prodding the American military institutions into rallying their many supporters in Congress and throughout American society."