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The Quiet Fury of Robert Gates
Wall Street Journal ^ | January 7, 2013 | Robert M. Gates

Posted on 01/08/2014 4:56:22 AM PST by Timber Rattler

All too often during my 4½ years as secretary of defense, when I found myself sitting yet again at that witness table at yet another congressional hearing, I was tempted to stand up, slam the briefing book shut and quit on the spot. The exit lines were on the tip of my tongue: I may be the secretary of defense, but I am also an American citizen, and there is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like that. I quit. Find somebody else. It was, I am confident, a fantasy widely shared throughout the executive branch.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; bobgates; douglaselute; gates; joebiden; katiecouric; obama; robertgates; secdef; thomasdonilon
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Then why didn't he?
1 posted on 01/08/2014 4:56:22 AM PST by Timber Rattler
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To: Timber Rattler

Notice how he leaves himself open for a position in the upcoming Hillary administration?


2 posted on 01/08/2014 4:59:26 AM PST by Flintlock ( islam is a LIE, mohammed was a CRIMINAL, shira is POISON.)
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To: Timber Rattler

Ugh


3 posted on 01/08/2014 4:59:41 AM PST by stanne
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To: Timber Rattler

Because he knew, and he was right, that if he quit we would end up with worse...and we did.


4 posted on 01/08/2014 5:00:25 AM PST by MestaMachine (My caps work. You gotta earn them.)
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To: Flintlock

No. He pretty well flayed her as well. Bigtime.


5 posted on 01/08/2014 5:01:38 AM PST by MestaMachine (My caps work. You gotta earn them.)
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To: Timber Rattler

What a load of CYA bull...


6 posted on 01/08/2014 5:02:32 AM PST by Russ (Repeal the 17th amendment)
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To: Timber Rattler

Apparently, his quiet indignation wasn’t so strongly motivated while he still had his job and didn’t need to hawk a tell-all book.

Doubtless, many of his revelations are about Obama are true (the ones he didn’t recant elsewhere in the book after feeling he might get Arkancided). However, quitting then and there and exposing the revelations real-time would have saved us a second four years of this Tyrant.


7 posted on 01/08/2014 5:03:59 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Timber Rattler

Feigned outrage. That’s what professional politicians do. Try to act like real people with a heart when there is none...


8 posted on 01/08/2014 5:06:03 AM PST by jsanders2001
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To: Timber Rattler

I read the whole piece and learned Gates is not nearly the jackass I always took him for.


9 posted on 01/08/2014 5:06:20 AM PST by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
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To: Timber Rattler
I don't know why Gates decided to stay on with Obama in the first place. He didn't know anything about Obama and the people who actually control the agenda? Either Gates is as dumb as a rock or he just didn't want to give up his cushy job. Now he just wants to sell a book. I have no sympathy for him.
10 posted on 01/08/2014 5:06:47 AM PST by fatnotlazy
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To: Russ

I believe thanks are in order, not criticism


11 posted on 01/08/2014 5:09:04 AM PST by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: fatnotlazy

Spot on.


12 posted on 01/08/2014 5:10:41 AM PST by N. Theknow (Kennedys-Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat-But they know what's best for you.)
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To: Gaffer

Right on.


13 posted on 01/08/2014 5:12:28 AM PST by fatnotlazy
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To: Timber Rattler

Gates was somebody who had been in government for years, and he also transitioned from one WH to another, so I think he was used to viewing things as the same-old, same-old, with only some personal stylistic differences between presidents.

I suspect it took him awhile - as it took many of us and many in the government, including, I think, Hillary Clinton - to admit that Obama was a controlling, entirely political and self-interested creature, motivated by nothing except what he perceived to be his own political gain and willing to say or do anything to promote it. Even if Gates had disagreed with other WH figures in the past, it was on legitimate grounds and with some awareness of their different responsibilities.

This was an entirely new situation, and I think it took him some time to accept how completely different it was to be treated with contempt, lied to, betrayed, etc. by the WH. It seems that he’s not the only one in government who felt this way.

One gathers from tidbits here and there in the excerpts I have seen that even the odious Hillary Clinton felt this way and was very unhappy with the way that she and everybody, all the way down to the troops, were treated by Obama.

But it’s hard to admit that the occupant of the WH, for whom you work, is a sociopathic megalomaniac surrounded by partisan toadies.


14 posted on 01/08/2014 5:12:55 AM PST by livius
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To: Timber Rattler

2012 would have been a much better date for this book, Bob —the country would have been better off.

He senses the certainty of Hillary’s candidacy and observes the totally undiminished enthusiasm of the MSM for her.

Thus his book.

Don’t get me wrong - I richly welcome this book, but Gates has always been a political survivor and he’s simply laying down a marker and trying to get a good seat on the lifeboat now that he knows the Administration has been hit by a torpedo.


15 posted on 01/08/2014 5:13:46 AM PST by gaijin
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To: Timber Rattler
there is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like that. I quit.

That's funny, I feel that way watching some news programs and when many of the SOB's that we voted in and that we pay, stand in front of TV cameras and talk about the TEA Party and anyone who doesn't agree with them like we are garbage, the enemy, not worthy of life or our God given rights.

They gang up with some in corporate America to threaten us. They intend to use big money to kick the citizens to the curb. But we can't quit and walk away, we're stuck for at least two years at a time and then our only chance is to beat big money and big lobbyist. We do win some and I hope it's much more. E-N-O-U-G-H!

16 posted on 01/08/2014 5:15:59 AM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheel barrow)
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To: Timber Rattler

Sorry, I have no use for your memoirs. You should have stood up as these things were occurring and resigned. By the way tell Petraeus not to bother with his book on this subject either


17 posted on 01/08/2014 5:17:06 AM PST by kushnejz
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To: Timber Rattler

Yes, why didn’t he?


18 posted on 01/08/2014 5:19:20 AM PST by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: Timber Rattler

Trashing Obama and Hillary to sell a book?

Good!

When does Colin Powell come out and share his brilliance again.

Don’t forget that he still claims that he is a Republican.


19 posted on 01/08/2014 5:21:43 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: Timber Rattler

sounds like this Robert Gates is actually a human unlike the many demons in DC


20 posted on 01/08/2014 5:26:14 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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