He’s the one who pushed for the order. He’s the one who has pushed for the cancellation for several years now. Sorry, he doesn’t get off the hook because of the current fiscal crisis.
Boy, you really don't want to let this go, do you? I can tell you are bitter about this decision, but seriously - get a stress ball or something.
Gates never pushed for this second engine. Google "gates, engine, f35"
Now, Congress puts stuff back into the budget all the time that they want. Gates said a few years back to "kill the C-17." Congress said "yeah, right."
As I said, he's a terrible SECDEF (Don't Ask Don't Tell crap, supports pay freezes, kisses Obama's butt, etc) - but he was been 100% consistent on this engine.