Comments on: Closing Gates

By: Uila

Uila — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:47:23 +0000

Steve,
I agree with your desire to clean house. I’ve been following Spencer Ackerman’s blog in an attempt to edumacate myself on these things. If there’s been a silver lining thus far, it’s that Gates’ current undersecretary for policy, “former Dick Cheney adviser Eric Edelman“, is out. His replacement is reported to be Michele Flournoy, about whom Ackerman states:

Long story short, if Flournoy indeed becomes undersecretary for policy — you can read about the importance of that job here — get ready to see, among other things, the interplay of the counterinsurgency and progressive communities as a hallmark of the Obama administration.

By: Shaun P.

Shaun P. — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:30:28 +0000

I completely understand your desire for Obama to clean house, Steve. What I keep telling myself is that Gates is more an HW, not a Dubya, guy. I didn’t (and still don’t) agree with a lot of HW’s policies, but with one obvious exception, the folks HW surrounded himself with at least lived in the real world (at least a tad) with the rest of us. That’s more than can be said for Dubya’s crew.

By: Alex Nixon

Alex Nixon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:10:05 +0000

I’m viewing this as the ultimate outsider, being both civilian and Canadian, so I could be wrong, but I’m actually quite thrilled with Robert Gates staying on. He’s recognized the need to shift from conventional warfare to asymetrical warfare, and taken decisive action to change armed forces culture to achieve dominance in that arena (changing promotion boards, scrapping obsolete weapons systems, ect). He seems to listen to intelligent people (Petraeus, Nagl, Yngling, Chiarelli, ect). He is willing to do what it takes to reform the US military, including taking on the air force. He understands how the Washington culture works and has bipartisan support and relationships. He’s tough, and willing to make changes when something isn’t working. He ultimately wants the same thing that President-Elect Obama wants: US troops out of Iraq, without screwing over the entire region.

Things do change, they just take an inordinate amount of time to do so. Gates seems to be an agent of constructive change. It’s a good day when you can get someone like that on your team.

By: andrew

andrew — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:07:22 +0000

Obviously things are working which is why Obama is not going to change much, I’m sure on a few trivial matters he will, but on major issues he won’t. The only thing that will change is how the media writes the narrative because the President will have a D next to his name as opposed to an R. It will be most amusing to watch the media and the Left (aplogies for the redundancy) try to tell themselves that everything is different.

By: Rob in CT

Rob in CT — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:53:33 +0000

Gates is a pragmatist and he’s gotten results. Why fire him?

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:17:35 +0000

While there were other things at play, our military leadership under Gates has appeared to be so much better than it was previously, especially in Iraq. I don’t like the fact that they may be leaving some Neo-cons in there, but I trust Gates, at least temporarily. Some continuity will be helpful as they try to end the occupation of Iraq. That said, I would put him on a very short leash.