UPDATED 2 x: Gates issues harsh critique of Obama in memoir

[DonViejo]

Source: Washington Post



In a new memoir, former defense secretary Robert Gates unleashes harsh judgments about President Obama’s leadership and his commitment to the Afghanistan war, writing that by early 2010 he had concluded the president “doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.”

Leveling one of the more serious charges that a defense secretary could make against a commander in chief sending forces into combat, Gates asserts that Obama had more than doubts about the course he had charted in Afghanistan. The president was “skeptical if not outright convinced it would fail,” Gates writes in “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.”

:::snip:::





Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/robert-gates-former-defense-secretary-offers-harsh-critique-of-obamas-leadership-in-duty/2014/01/07/6a6915b2-77cb-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html

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UPDATE;

Bob Gates Slams Biden As Being 'Wrong On Nearly Every Major Foreign Policy' In 40 Years

Later in the memoir, however, Gates praises Obama's policies on Afghanistan.

"I believe Obama was right in each of these decisions," he wrote, according to a Washington Post account.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bob-gates-slams-biden-as-being-wrong-on-nearly-every-major-foreign-policy-in-40-years

Bob Gates: Clinton, Obama Opposed Iraq Surge Due To Politics

President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted their decision to oppose the 2007 Iraq troop surge was at least somewhat "political" in nature, according to a new memoir by former Defense Secretary Bob Gates obtained by the Washington Post.

Gates offers a catalogue of various meetings, based in part on notes that he and his aides made at the time, including an exchange between Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that he calls “remarkable.” He writes: “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. . . . The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bob-gates-clinton-obama-opposed-iraq-surge-due-to-politics

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Update 2

White House disputes Biden criticism in Gates book
ASSOCIATED PRESS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is pushing back against criticism that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has leveled against Vice President Joe Biden in a new book.

Gates’ memoir is titled “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.” He’s quoted as saying Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue of the last four decades.

White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says President Barack Obama disagrees. She says Biden has been a leading statesman and has advanced U.S. leadership abroad. Hayden says Obama relies on Biden’s good counsel every day.

Responding to another Gates claim, that Obama lost confidence in the Afghanistan surge, Hayden says the president has always welcomed different views within his team. Gates served under Obama and former President George W. Bush.

###

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/07/white_house_disputes_biden_criticism_in_gates_book/

[Lint Head]

1. So and Iran-Contra criminal has an opinion?

Hmmmm.

[elleng]

2. This is by woodward, a hit piece against Pres. Obama.

NYTimes does a more reasonable 'review,' imo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/world/asia/obama-lost-faith-in-his-afghan-strategy-memoir-asserts.html?hp

[Ash_F]

3. A center-right President isn't good enough for the MIC.

A summary of the memoir. You are welcome.

[malletgirl02]

59. You are right

Obama went along with MIC, and MIC stabbed him in the back.

[Scuba]

67. Eggzaklee!

[Renew Deal]

4. Sometimes you make the least bad choice

[ScottyEss]

40. And that's the problem. One day we will learn make the best best choice.

And we can start by making the least best choice rather then the least worst choice.

[Jackpine Radical]

56. Wouldn't it be wonderful to find yourself in a dilemma

of choosing between the better of two goods?

[ScottyEss]

62. It would be so strange as to be scary!

[Journeyman]

5. And what did Gates do while Sec. of Defense to correct this problem. . .

and why are we only hearing about it after he's safely removed from decision making?

[warrant46]

50. Gates the scum is a back stabber

And Obama is a fool for putting this clown in charge of more than a military latrine.

[Thinkingabout]

6. In the current events President Obama was right, it has not made much difference and after the t

troops are withdrawn it will go back to what was happening before the US troops arrived.

[avaistheone1]

16. True.

k&r

[7962]

19. And it wouldnt matter if was done over 2 months or 24 months. Same result. nt

[Thinkingabout]

22. EXACTLY

[underpants]

7. Gates wrote that book for the audience that will buy it

Those probably are his opinions and perspective but, first he serves the President and second so does the military. It's not a matter daring to question the brass it is called command and control.

[hedgehog]

8. "For him, it’s all about getting out.”

Works for me!

[VWolf]

9. Yeah really!

Pres. Obama's feelings on this are a problem .... exactly how?

[JackRiddler]

13. Because his feelings didn't make the policy.

Gates is practically doing him a favor with this bullshit. We can all act as if the Obama admin didn't start out by keeping this long time Bush mob lieutenant and major criminal as the Pentagon chief.

Fact: Obama administration conducted an escalation in the Afghanistan war. If his "feelings" were that it was all bullshit, it's hardly to his credit that he went ahead and did the wrong things anyway.

And it raises the more important question: Who is in charge of the perpetual war machine?

[LittleGirl]

27. Who is in charge???

^^That's an excellent question and one I'd like to see answered.

This MIC machine needs to be shut down. It's a funnel of dark money and trillions have been lost.


What are we fighting? Who is in Charge and What is wrong with ending that war!?

Shut it down before we lose another human.

[Salviati]

25. Indeed.

We lost two wars the moment W invaded Iraq, and there's not a damn thing Obama could have done about it, except for bringing an end to it.

[QuestForSense]

10. Another reason Obama should have rid the government of every single Bush appointee

the second after he was sworn in. Without exception.

[LittleGirl]

28. I couldn't believe how many

he appointed...oh the irony.

I thought he'd clean house but he is not the one in charge, is he?

[ScottyEss]

41. He is the one in charge, since January 20, 2009.

[libodem]

51. Damn Skippy!

[JackRiddler]

11. So why was this guy Secretary of War?

And if Obama didn't believe in it, why did he do the Afghanistan escalation (the "surge," if you prefer weasel words)?

Who or what is really in charge of the perpetual war machine?

Why wasn't the high Bush mob criminal behind bars by 1990, is another question, though so goddamn academic.

[truthisfreedom]

12. His book is for hawks. He's a war monger.

What do you expect? Dude's out of a job and bitter that he has to stop killing.

[another_liberal]

17. Well said!

You hit that nail square on the head.

[elleng]

14. Keep in mind that woodward's WaPo piece trashes Pres. Obama.

NYTimes doesn't do the same:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/world/asia/obama-lost-faith-in-his-afghan-strategy-memoir-asserts.html?hp

[The Wizard]

29. Woodward is a hack

nothing more or less. He wrote a book about Bush that was essentially a blowjob.

[George II]

33. HAH! I'll have to remember that line (essentially a blowjob)!

[SoapBox]

44. Hilarious!

[another_liberal]

15. ". . . skeptical if not outright convinced it would fail."

That's because he isn't a fool. President Obama knew his predecessor left him no good options, and the advice his generals gave him was even worse. Of course he doubted the stupid plan.

[TwilightGardener]

18. Skeptical is a good thing. Best to be pleasantly surprised if it all works. In the case of

Afghanistan, no one's going to be pleasantly surprised when all is said and done. It's just grinding to an end, now.

[another_liberal]

54. Afghanistan for the Afghans.

It's well past time they had a chance to run their own country.

[Ash_F]

26. I am shocked that the plan of disenfranchising the entire country

...while giving the government to a small cabal of obedient corporate puppets, living in one city, is not working out.

Edit - I am not sure if I just described Afghanistan or the US.

[ScottyEss]

42. You mean "and", and the answer is yes.

[Ash_F]

55. I guess it is working out better in the US...

Maybe in 30 years Afghanistan will be on our level.

Or vice versa!

[ScottyEss]

61. Hehehe, exactly!

[another_liberal]

53. Like the guy said . . .

"How can you win a civil war in a nation of peasants if you're fighting on the side of the landlords? The answer is that you can't."

[pa28]

20. Maybe Obama should have listened to the people who suggested putting a Democrat in at DOD.

I'm guessing Hagel will pull the same stunt.

[Zen Democrat]

34. Most DODs have been Republican.

FDR appointed Republican Harold Stimson as Secretary of War
JFK & LBJ had Republican Robert McNamara
Clinton had Republican William Cohen
Obama had Republican Bill Gates and now has Republican Chuck Hagel

Is the Pentagon a birthright of Republicans?

Among Democratic Presidents of the past 75 years, only Carter appointed a Democratic Secretary of Defense -- Harold Brown (you probably never heard of him because we had no armed conflicts under Carter) for the entire term. Obama did have Democrat Leon Panetta head up DOD for a couple of years. I do think Hagel is not typical for Republicans because he's a dove not a hawk.

[TwilightGardener]

35. Hagel is not a dove. He voted for the Iraq War Resolution, for example.

[ScottyEss]

43. Which is why we have been involved in a shooting war

in each decade since 1941.

[hollowdweller]

21. This shows the fallacy of trying to be bipartisan

It never works.

Gergin left Clinton admin and talked shit about him.

Obama reached out to Greeg and got slapped.

He kept Gates on and same thing.

Bipartisanship is dead. The best thing to do is win the war of ideas and basically replace everyone you can with people who agree with you and who you can trust.

[stg81]

23. gotta have controversy to sell books

[stg81]

24. Wat until Obama writes his memoirs...

[George II]

30. Who give a rat's ass about what this clown thinks? He was a war mongering holdover....

....from the bush administration anyway. And his criticism of Biden is equally disgusting or worse!

Keeping Gates as Defense Secretary was a major blunder, setting the stage for this ridiculous criticism.

Where was he when he was still Defense Secretary? Not a peep then, the slime ball.

[Solly Mack]

31. Fuck Gates. For a lot of reasons.

The least of which being what he says to sell his book.

[Deny and Shred]

32. Obama ran on ending this war.

People voted for him in the hope he would do so. He deserves credit. To think this path to end involvement in Afghanistan wouldn't run into MIC resistance is folly. This article is trash. Gates is being a schmuck. So is Woodward.

The time for or against the surge was in 2002/3, when it would have made a difference in the overall effort. By the runup to the '08 election, of course it was political. McCain was on TV everyday advocating for it, angling for votes.

[TwilightGardener]

37. To be fair, Obama didn't run on withdrawing from Afghanistan. He just didn't know

what to do with it. I still think he doesn't really know. I don't think he's convinced of the necessity of the Bilateral Security Agreement.

[Deny and Shred]

38. Perhaps 'ending' was too specific.

Certainly, people voted for him to end both Iraq and Afghanistan vis a vis voting McCain.

I believe we are seeing the difference between candidate and President. Much easier to promise without consequence than deliver amidst multiple conflicting interests.

[jwirr]

36. Well that is how most of us feel to - its all about getting out of a war we should never have been

in and would not have been in if it had not been for W and the MIC.

[ScottyEss]

39. President Obama, continuously throwing

the "Professional Left" under the bus so that he can make nice with those who continuously throw him under the bus.

[paulkienitz]

45. Gates is offended that Obama viewed the war realistically

"Gates asserts that Obama had more than doubts about the course he had charted in Afghanistan.... skeptical if not outright convinced it would fail."

[indepat]

46. My Dear Mr. President: What a perfect example of what a Democrat can expect when his Republican

Secretary of Defense feels the President didn't pursue his inherited right-wing foreign policy with enough belligerence, bellicosity, treasure, destruction, and bloodshed. It's never to late to learn. Your faithful servant

[QuestForSense]

58. Sound advice; right-on-the-money.

[Iliyah]

47. Here comes Issa to further investigate why, why, why

[DallasNE]

48. I Doubt History Will Be Kind To Gates Assessment On The "Surge"

In either Iraq or Afghanistan. The event that made the greatest impact in the fight was when al Sadr did a unilateral cease fire. We still don't know why he had this change of heart. Perhaps part of it was how many people he was losing to the surge but perhaps it was just his way of declaring victory and moving on. Indeed, al Sadr could be directing the string of attacks that are again raging. Easier to analyze is the impact of the surge in Afghanistan. It had minimal impact as the Taliban still control the same areas they did before the surge. All that seemed to happen with the increased troops was to provide more targets, as measured in deaths by combat. Nation building efforts always seem to find a way to fail -- and why not. Nobody wants an occupying force to be successful.

But if Gates thought things were going so badly as he professes there the honorable thing to do was to resign. Instead he seemed compelled to stay in an administration he was out of step with his personal views and his lukewarm support probably reflected down the chain of command -- to wit Gen. McChrystal.

[Dawson Leery]

49. This is what Obama gets for not cleaning house.

Last edited Tue Jan 7, 2014, 11:50 PM - Edit history (1)

The cockroaches, yes Bob Gates is a cockroach needed to be shown the door.

With that said, Obama views war realistically. Bob Gates has exposed himself as a right wing partisan hack.

Obama had the maturity to admit he made mistake with his foreign policy (military in Afghanistan), unlike Mr. Bush who drove the car into the ditch then over a cliff.

[TwilightGardener]

52. Although...Bob Gates disagreed with the neocon idea to bomb Iran.

He didn't appear to be wholly sold on neoconservatism, in general.

[albino65]

57. Another traitor writes a book

As an incoming Democratic president, you don't hire a Republican's henchman.

[OmahaBlueDog]

60. Gates is entitled to his opinion, but ending the wars was a major reason people voted for Obama

At this point, I'd like to hasten the pullout from Afghanistan. As for Iraq, Israel, Syria, Iran, et. al. - to paraphrase Sarah Palin, let Divine Providence sort it out.

America needs to stay out of other people's wars and stick to its knitting for the next half century.

[davidpdx]

63. It's a book written by a Republican, what can you expect

Sure maybe he should have gotten rid of Gates more quickly. The truth is we don't know what was going on behind the scenes during the transition from Bush to Obama.

One thing for sure is that Gates' own words back up the fact that the president was resolute about getting us out of both wars. Something to point out the next time someone from DU compares Obama to Bush.

[Warren Stupidity]

64. Memoirs of a Secretary at War - fuck that shit.

More like "The Tragedy of the Neocon Delusion. How the Global War On Everyone broke the planet and bankrupted the world."

[Drunken Irishman]

65. Stupid Obama not buying the neo-con line.

[Blasphemer]

66. What is supposed to be an indictment sounds like high praise to me.

Though George W. Bush would lead people to think otherwise, the ability to rethink bad decisions is a quality we need in a president. Gates' opinion on Biden needs no explanation. I'm quite glad Vice President Biden is in the Obama administration.

[tabasco]

68. That's what you get when you "reach out" and appoint a puke

Kicked in the teeth.