Top 10 Revelations From Robert Gates’s Memoir

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 7, 2014 | Dion Nissenbaum

[Zakeet]

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is releasing his memoir, “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,” a 600-page book that offers a stark, insider’s view of Washington, the Pentagon, Congress and America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (You can read an exclusive WSJ excerpt.) Here’s a look at some of the book’s most riveting revelations:

1. Contempt for Congress Mr. Gates expresses open disdain for Congress and the way lawmakers treated him when he testified at hearings. “I saw most of Congress as uncivil, incompetent at fulfilling their basic constitutional responsibilities (such as timely appropriations), micromanagerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned and prone to put self (and re-election) before country.” Mr. Gates said he fantasized about storming out of hearings and quitting. “There is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like that,” he writes of his fantasy.

2. Contempt for Vice President Biden Mr. Gates expresses particular dissatisfaction with Vice President Joe Biden. He describes Mr. Biden as a “man of integrity” who “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Specifically, Mr. Gates said he opposed Mr. Biden’s proposed limited strategy in Afghanistan to focus on counter-terrorism: “Whac-A-Mole hits on Taliban leaders weren’t a long term strategy,” he writes.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I think Hillary is lock.

Have to disagree there, for the following reasons.

The Democrat Party is moving Left at such a frenetic clip, she is now too Conservative to suit their base.

Obama's Peeps have never been her friends, and now feel that the White House is the exclusive domain of "our people". They won't go down without a fight. (and for this reason, I suspect the Dems will have great difficulty nominating non-minorities in the future)

She was a lock in '08 too, but was taken out at the knees by an amateur novice.

Bill does not really want her mucking up his legacy, and will throw the tacks in the rear view mirror at precisely the right moment.

By 2016 there will be elderly warthogs who look better on HDTV.

[kjam22]

I wonder who the Left Left would run against her? Maxine Waters? Pelosi? Reid? Weiner? Or is there someone we haven’t met yet being groomed for the spot? I dunno.... I do agree she’s more conservative than the left base. What a terrible thought....

[mmichaels1970]

Just read the highlights and it sounds more like “Clinton/Gates ‘16” to me.

[matthew fuller]

mark for later.

[laplata]

Andrew Cuomo will be their choice, IMO.

Cuomo vs Christie.

[canuck_conservative]

In one meeting, Mr. Gates says that he challenged Mr. Biden and Thomas Donilon, then Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, when they tried to pass orders to him on behalf of the president. “The last time I checked, neither of you are in the chain of command,” Mr. Gates says he told the two men. Mr. Gates said he expected to deal directly with the president on such orders.

As more and more info comes out, I think the public will find this Administration more idiotic than anyone ever thought possible. This is just the tip of the incompetence iceberg!

This Gates book actually looks kind of interesting, read the whole article.

[Chewbarkah]

I am not a Robert Gates cheerleader, but I hope you will look beyond simple greed or lack of integrity to explain his actions. Gates’ error was accepting an appointment from Obama in the first place. Getting in bed with scoundrels is never a good idea; we all saw what Obama was, so an old CIA guy certainly should have known. I suspect that ego led him to believe two things: inaccurately, that HE could somehow steer the administration to do the right thing some of the time; and, accurately, that if he didn’t take the job, someone much worse for the country would (Barbara Boxer perhaps?).

Once he accepted the job, he was trapped. Running away in a snit would be childish. Millions of people depend on the SecDef’s relationship with Congress. Resigning and calling out the “People’s” elected representatives as the ignorant, self-serving, grandstanding cowards they are would salve one’s own bruised ego. The scumbags would then make the military pay a very high price (and Gates would be 100% ruined by the media that would mobilize to make him out as a disgruntled egomaniac). Letting yourself be pummeled by gloating cowards, who know you can’t defend yourself, becomes the only option, before retiring “quietly”, itself a difficult public admission of your own failure. That takes integrity of a complicated sort. His judgement and integrity failed him most when he accepted the job.

[elpadre]

“.. I think Hillary is lock. She’ll be better than what we’ve got.”

wash your mouth out with soap!- badder than bad??

[Nifster]

oh I don’t know how about the wife of a once state senator and newbie US senator???

[Rockitz]

As another on the thread noted he probably liked the perks of the job as well. Just because he’s an “academic” doesn’t mean he knows how to run the DOD or anything else for that matter.

BTW, it was Texas A&M.

[matthew fuller]

Gates has a runaway best seller on his hands. He WILL be audited by IRS.

[matthew fuller]

Agreed, he is the order-taker in Chief. I suspect that the orders originate in Pok-E-Ston, in the muslim brotherhood.

[ridesthemiles]

6. Obama has contributed less to the country than ANY military man or woman...none of whom respects the miserable piece of excrement.”””

And Obama is trying his best to push this nation into Martial Law & he expects such military to support HIS side of things.

I don’t see that happening. The military won’t follow his orders to shoot civilians.

[ridesthemiles]

With all that Complete control, that makes Obama responsible for Benghazi....PERIOD.

[Albion Wilde]

“Much of my conflicts with the Obama administration during the first two years weren’t over policy initiatives from the White House but rather the NSS’s micromanagement and operational meddling,” he writes. “For an NSS staff member to call a four-star combatant commander or field commander would have been unthinkable when I worked at the White House – and probably cause for dismissal. It became routine under Obama.”

As for the editorializing surrounding the quotes from the book: who wrote that -- characterizations like "contempt" and "hate" -- Axelrod? Holder? Jarrett? Carney?

[7thson]

Excuse me for saying this but that sounds like so much claptrap. Someone much worse taking the job - we got that with Hagel. "Letting yourself be pummeled by gloating cowards" is going to happen now anyway.

How about showing some real integrity and try to protect the nation. How about resigning and saying 'Hey, people, wake up! We got traitors and idiots runnig amok! These people need to be stopped!' But no, he is too much the insider to do that. Instead of trying to protect and defend the Constitution, he looked out for himself.

You are entitled to your opinion but I just don't buy it. And I am willing to bet a lot of Freepers and millions of other citizens don't buy it either.

[what's up]

I think Gates is a Dem.

This is why I think he doesn't go so far as to trash Hillary...as a Dem he's likely hoping for a Hillary presidency.

Ugh ugh and ugh.

[Albion Wilde]

I think Hillary is lock. She'll be better than what we've got.

You are fooling yourself. She has been in it up to her neck since high school. Alinsky was her mentor. Expect worse, not better.

[7thson]

Remember the name Martin O’Malley, now governor of my state, Maryland. That guy will say and do anything and he is a Marxist to boot. He will throw his hat in the ring and will destroy Hitlery.

[Jedidah]

Ridiculous.

Gates did not need that job, didn’t even want it. He reluctantly resigned as President at Texas A&M University when GWB asked him to take the Sec. of Defense job. He was director of the CIA and was lured out of retirement to head the Graduate School of Government and Public Service at A&M prior to becoming President. The man has an impressive resume and all the money he can ever want.

In my opinion, he is a public servant who loves this country and stayed on when Obama took office because he knew full well that Obama hates the military and would appoint an incompetent if he left.