Shame on you, Robert Gates. Shame on you.In a new memoir...the former Secretary of Defense is extremely critical of President Obama, Vice President Biden, the United States Congress and many top aides in the Obama Administration.
Duty: Memoirs Of A Secretary At War is nearly 600 pages...and in it...Gates questions President Obama's leadership...and his commitment and sincerity...in supporting the war in Afghanistan. Gates feels the President didn't have confidence in his own strategies and writes, "I believe the President cared deeply about the troops and their families. I never doubted Obama's support for the troops." But then Gates excoriates the President and says, "Given the President's campaign rhetoric about Afghanistan...I think I...our commanders...and our troops...had expected more commitment to the cause...and more passion for it from him." Gates slams President Obama for not considering "the war to be his. For (the President)... it's all about getting out."
Why should President Obama be committed to a war that he inherited from President George W. Bush...and that from day one of Mr. Obama's Presidency...he always stated that he wanted - as soon as humanly possible - to get out of both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? That is what President Obama was committed to doing - which he succeeded in doing with Iraq - and is - to this day - committed to doing with regards to the war in Afghanistan. Secretary Gates needs to be reminded that the President of the United States is Commander-in-Chief. The Secretary of Defense works for him.
But Secretary Gates is severely tough on Vice President Biden...accusing Mr. Biden of "poisoning the well" against the military leadership. And Gates lambastes the Vice President with perhaps the harshest of words...when he attacks and writes..."(Biden) has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Forty-years of mistakes? Come on, Mr. Secretary. What the hell did Vice President Biden do to you...for you to make such a vicious comment?
The former Defense Secretary also calls Congress - the majority of Members - "uncivil, incompetent, egotistical, thin-skinned." And in this devastating critique of the Obama Administration...Gates writes that some of The White House staff exerted too much power and he accused them of being "the most controlling I had seen since (President) Richard Nixon and (Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger." For those of you who think that I'm blasting Secretary of Defense Gates because he is a Republican...think again. Mr. Gates is a Republican who my President - a Democrat - chose to be part of his Cabinet. I supported that choice. Mr. Gates is a Republican who was always considered by Americans from both political parties as being a distinguished and dignified statesman. I agreed with that. So where then is the loyalty to the President and Vice President who Gates served? The former Defense Secretary spent a lifetime serving our country...working for eight different Presidents. What made him decide to use President Obama and Vice President Biden as punching bags?
It's been said time and time again that Gates did not want to accept President Obama's offer...to continue as Secretary of Defense after serving President Bush. Gates wanted to retire. But President Obama - I won't say begged - but, according to numerous reports...strongly requested that Gates stay on. He did so with great reluctance...but because - as Gates writes in his book - he cared about our military troops. The former Defense Secretary always had an emotional connection to our men and women in uniform. But it's obvious that Gates was totally miserable while working in the Obama Administration. The former Secretary of Defense writes about Congressional hearings where he wished he could speak his mind at that time...but he couldn't then...so he does now.
Why if Robert Gates was boiling with rage for such a long time...did he stay on as Secretary of Defense? It's admirable that he had an adoration and allegiance for the troops of our armed forces...but if he despised his job...and disliked - or even hated - the way President Obama was handling matters of national security and the war in Afghanistan...then why did Gates not quit earlier? He could have simply told the President..."I'm outta here!" Nobody had put a gun to Gates' head...and told him that he had to stay. Was it that he wanted more information so he could write a book? Yes sadly, I ask...did Secretary of Defense Robert Gates accept the position offered him...only to know in the back of his mind that he'd be able to write a "tell-all" book...the day he leaves office...and spill the beans on all the gossip - or whatever else he wanted to write? It is unfortunate that someone such as Secretary Gates has done that. If Mr. Gates - 5 or 10 years from now - in a historical observation...wanted to tell his side of the story - or what he believes it to be - whether he agreed or disagreed with the President and his administration...that is perfectly permissible to me. Granted...thankfully we live in a land where all Americans have the freedom to speak and to write their opinions in a book, in a newspaper or magazine, for a television or radio report, in an Internet blog, or whatever else...and to do so freely whenever they desire. However, it's disappointing that a man who has been highly respected by people on both sides of the aisle...in Washington, DC and all across the country...would spew the venom that Secretary Gates did...while President Obama...Vice President Biden...and Members of Congress are still in office...and while the country is still fighting a controversial war in a foreign land. It is a disservice to the nation...to all Americans...and to the President, Vice President and Congress.
Understandably...Robert Gates' memoir is not a total tale of destruction against the Obama Administration. I have only read excerpts...but reportedly the entire book - page by page - is not as nasty and as cruel as certain parts. Gates says he did agree with most of President Obama's decisions concerning Afghanistan...and the former Defense Secretary writes about the killing of Osama bin Laden...and says President Obama's approval of the raid to capture the al-Qaeda leader was "one of the most courageous decisions I had ever witnessed in The White House." So Secretary Gates does give...at least, some credit...to President Obama. That being said...what is destructive...is damning against the President, the Vice President and Congress - especially the Senate.
Another of his Cabinet colleagues...who he praises and then verbally pummels...is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Gates applauds Mrs. Clinton and calls her "smart, idealistic...pragmatic, tough-minded, funny." But despite his kudos and accolades towards Secretary Clinton...Gates also throws the former First Lady under the bus...when he alleges that he heard her tell President Obama that she only opposed the war in Iraq because she was running against Mr. Obama in the 2008 race for The White House. Gates writes that "Hillary told the President that her opposition to the (2007) surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary." Of course we don't know if Secretary Clinton actually made such a statement, but it irritates me that Secretary Gates would - with one breath - flatter Secretary Clinton and then a moment later... castigate her...betray her...and send her down the river. Let me be clear so that none of you think I'm naive. Anybody who serves The White House...serves a President - especially in a high profile capacity - has to be thinking - "I'll write a book. I'll make millions." Robert Gates is going to make a ton of money from his autobiography... and perhaps that's why he wrote it now. Maybe if the memoir was published after Barack Obama leaves The Oval Office...and another President moves in to The White House...Gates' views would not be as intriguing...as they may be to some people today. If the former Secretary of Defense felt it necessary to be as frank...as blunt...and as open as he was in his book...he has that right. But couldn't he have waited a few years? If Gates didn't see eye to eye with President Obama and Vice President Biden...then the former Defense Secretary should have kept it all to himself - at least for now - at least until a new administration takes office in 2017.
It was nearly 30 years after leaving office as Secretary of Defense for President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson - from 1961 to 1968 - that Robert McNamara wrote his memoir, In Retrospect - which was published in 1995 - and which presented an account and analysis of The Vietnam War. According to an article in The New York Times...the book states that "(McNamara) concluded well before leaving The Pentagon that the war was futile." And he confessed in his memoir that The Vietnam War was "wrong, terribly wrong." 
For Robert Gates to expel "diarrhea of the mouth" - while his President and Vice President are still in office - is despicable and completely out of line. If Gates felt he had to make sure - according to the way he saw it...or remembers it - that the record was corrected to his thinking - then I support his desire to do so...but not while President Obama and Vice President Biden are still making every effort to accomplish the goals they set out to achieve...and certainly not while our military is winding down a war that most Americans are very touchy about... and while our troops are still in harm's way.
The timing of the former Defense Secretary's memoir...is poor. I can assure you...and outright promise you...that if Robert Gates was a Democrat...who happened to write an autobiography that included scathing revelations - based on his own points of view - then I would feel the same way. I can also guarantee...that if a Republican was in The White House...and a Democrat - who was in his or her Cabinet...and left while the President was still in office - then wrote a book criticizing the Republican President...that Republicans throughout the United States...would want to skin the Democrat alive.
What Robert Gates did was wrong. Just plain wrong. You don't sit down at your computer...the moment you leave office...and begin to write a book that attacks the administration you supposedly served with devotion, trust, reverence and integrity - especially after President Obama had honored Secretary Gates with the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the nation's highest civilian honor. At that presentation on June 30th, 2011...the President complimented Gates as "one of the best" Secretaries of Defense. The President also praised Gates as "a humble American patriot...a man of common sense and decency...quite simply one of our nation's finest public servants...and someone who I have come to admire and whom I consider a friend." I wonder if President Obama still feels that way today.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.
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