s.
Posted on 11/12/2009 3:54:06 PM PST by SandRat
EN ROUTE TO OSHKOSH, Wis., Nov. 12, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today condemned a spate of leaks regarding both the Afghanistan strategy deliberations and last week's shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, threatening to fire anyone in the Defense Department he finds is involved.
"I am appalled by the amount of leaking that has been going on," Gates told reporters traveling with him today in the wake of media reports following yesterday's national security session on Afghanistan, President Barack Obama's eighth in the past two months.
Gates said he has little doubt that some of those leaks have come from within the Defense Department. "If I found out who" was involved, he said, "it would probably be a career ender."
Leaking information as Obama is weighing critical factors serves neither the interest of the country nor the military, the secretary said. He refrained from sharing his own views about the best option, but said Obama appears to be leaning toward one that combines parts of various alternatives presented so far.
The question, he said, comes down to "How do we signal resolve, and at the same time, signal to the Afghans and the American people that this is not open-ended?"
Returning to the leaking issue, Gates condemned information made public about the alleged Fort Hood gunman that he said could jeopardize the investigation.
"Everybody out there with their own little piece of the action" doesn't understand how it fits into the big picture, he said. "Everybody out there ought to just shut up."
Gates spoke with reporters en route to Oshkosh, Wis., where he said he wants to thank factory workers at the Oshkosh Corp. who have stepped up production of all-terrain versions of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle specifically designed for Afghanistan's rugged terrain.
The M-ATVs, as the special MRAP vehicles are known, are part of the defensive response to roadside bombs responsible for more than 80 percent of casualties in Afghanistan, Gates said. Going after the networks that build and plant them is the offensive part of the response, he added.
Gates also announced a new task force focused on protecting U.S. troops in Afghanistan against improvised explosive devices. The new counter-IED task force will oversee the full range of efforts already under way, including the Joint IED Defeat Organization, MRAP production and other measures.
"It will bring together the range of capabilities we already have, and make them more collaborated and more integrated," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell explained.
Gates conceded that while M-ATVs provide more troop protection, very large IEDs being seen in Afghanistan pose a huge threat. "There is nothing that can protect our troops against everything," he said.
Hey Gates, do you wash Obama’s underwear by hand?? Do you clean his behind?
Seriously, I hated the leaks during Bush’s 7 years of trying to win a war against the terrorists and protect our country. But then, Obama isn’t trying to win a war, and he damn sure doesn’t care about the security of our country... he’s just playing politics and he’s too stupid to know how to lead a war effort.
Obama needs to step down and go organize some ghetto community... where he belongs.
I hear those who do condone the gay lifestyle experience problems with leakage.
Hell, much of the leaking is probably coming directly out of the White House. Funny how Gates only blames the DoD.
I’ve never had a good feeling about Gates. He seems like an underhanded political ‘manager’ type person, rather than a leader.
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn had federal charges against them dropped because of improper surveillance, so they avoided prison.
Oh now I get it. If there is a repub in the white house, it’s perfectly okay to leak information. But now that it’s a dem, leaks are to be condemned. How convenient!
s.
Just because Obama is a Bulls fan.
They are leaking because the leakers are appalled by the amount of lying going on by you and your scumbag boss.....
“They are leaking because the leakers are appalled by the amount of lying going on by you and your scumbag boss.....”
Amen to that. Gates “the diversity whore” is just like his dispicable US Army Chief of staff GEN Casey who thinks the value (sic) of diversity trumps the shed blood of soldiers!
This administration is a disgusting Obamination!!
sounds like some men are willing to risk sacrifice of their career to ensure America knows the tune Zer0 is playing while Afghanistan burns...
Good grief, deliver us from leaders that suffer angst about the messages they send. Here is the answer, Victory. WWII style Victory.
I suppose waterboarding is out of the question?
Reagan nominated him to Director but he had to withdraw because of his involvement in Iran-Contra.
He did get confirmed in his second nomination under Bush. Before the Bush nomination, he was NSA Deputy under Scowcroft.
Gates may be Obama's Sec of Defense but he really works for Scowcroft.
lol After reading your quick summary/bio on him, I believe my assumptions of him are correct. He’s been around DC for an awfully long time. Not many people hang around DC that long without becoming more of a political person than anything else. He WAS an officer in the Air Force, but that was a long time ago.
It would be nice to have a SECDEF that is/was a real ‘warrior’ at one time or another, but I’d imagine the fighters rarely kiss enough ass to reach the top of the political ladder in DC.
Top secret, secret, etc. are worthless.
Asshats take an oath, but thier personal integrity is mush mush.
Very few are intrested in the USA, just social engineering and queer weddings.
This seems to be what all the acolytes of Obama (Pelosi, Reed, Frank -- all of them) have to say about those of us "out here".
The NeoCons resent Gates because he served in the Iraq Study Group and was a symbol of their fall from power.
Some of those NeoCons blame Gates for Bush abandoning Scooter to die on the political battlefield.
However all that played out, the Realists are running foreign policy now.
Rumsfeld seemed great for a few years, but clearly didn't do a good job with Iraq. We had a masterful plan for defeating the Iraqi army and taking Baghdad, but didn't have solid planing in place for what to do afterward.
I don't recall the Iraq study group offering up a winning strategy on Iraq either. Wasn't Petraeus responsible for the strategy of "The Surge"?
I'm not so sure I would refer to 0bama, Hillary, Richard Holbrooke, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and the rest of the liberals at the State Department as "Realists" when it comes to foreign policy. Was that sarcasm?
Holbrooke is in that group that is called National Security Democrats aka liberal interventionists aka liberal hawks. Others is this group are Ike Skelton, Jane Harmon, and Diane Feinstein. The DUers call them leftwing neocons. Definately different from the liberal surrender monkeys.
As for Petraeus, he is important, but you need to look at his COIN advisor, John Nagl. Nagl was West Point and a Rhodes Scholar, he rewrote the COIN manual, that is being used in Afghan. He became president of the think tank, Center for a New American Security(CNAS) last Jan.
McCrystal is important, but you need to look at his COIN advisor, Andrew Exum, who is now a Senior Fellow at CNAS.
There were about a dozen individuals at CNAS who went to work for Obama last Jan, all in policy positions, including Michele Flournoy, who became Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, the number 3 job at DoD. This is the same job that Douglas Feith had under GW Bush.
While the conversation between Obama and his senior advisors is about 20, 30, or 40 thousand troops, those working out side of scrutiny are talking about a ramp or ramp up in Afghan. How many boots on the ground in 2015 or 2017.
As for Hillary, this is just a temporary job that will give her some foreign policy experience so that she can join the William J Clinton Foundation as a full partner, so that they can be crowned King and Queen of the World by the UN.
As for Obama, because of the part that the republican realists play in his election and the influence they have had on his policies, plus the fact that Obama had brought in many interventionists, the political classifiers call him a Realist Interventionist. But, he doesn't want to get caught in the same trap that caught Bush in Iraq. And Rahm doesn't want him to get caught either.
Of course, who knows which direction 0bama will take with regard to Afghanistan now. Given the news reports today, it seems he’s decided to scrap all of the recommendations given by his national security advisers and General McChrystal, and wants to go back to the ‘drawing board’.
It looks like the White House floated some trial balloons on Afghanistan in the media, and they didn’t like the reaction they saw from the Left. If the decisions regarding the war are made based on what the Left approves of, we should end it now. It isn’t looking good.
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