Robert Gates on CBS Sunday Morning

Former Secretary of Defense (December 18, 2006 - July 1, 2011) Robert Gates has published a memoir called "Duty".  He was on CBS Sunday Morning to talk about it with Rita Braver.
These are my takeaways from the interview:
1.  He now lives in a town outside Seattle.  Welcome!  He's not from around here so I'm not sure why he chose to retire in the Pacific Northwest, but he said he and his wife have known they would retire here for years.
2.  While Secretary of Defense, and in private, he was angry all the time and wanted to leave government all the time.  Why?  "...getting anything done in Washington was so damnably hard."   He had to fight his own war within the Pentagon to get Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles produced.  It seems odd, to me, because these would protect the troops and it's a no-brainer to fund that.  Gates said, "It's beaurocratic inertia, it's unwillingness to spend money on a war that everybody expected to be over soon."
3.  He faults President Obama for not having a passion for pursuing the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's one thing to tell the troops that you support them.  It's another to work at making them believe that you believe, as president, that their sacrifice is worth it, that the cause is just, that what they are doing is important for the country.  And that they must succeed.  President Bush did that with the troops, when I was Secretary.  I did not see President Obama do that.  And as I write in the book, it was this absence of passion, the absence of a conviction of the importance of success that disturbed me.

By the logic Robert Gates is proposing, the only way to support the troops is to believe the policy the troops are carrying out is the correct one; that it is a just cause and their sacrifice is worth it.
But Obama doesn't support the war.  He inherited Iraq and Afghanistan.  He was elected in large part because the country doesn't support the war.  How does that make the troops feel?
Obama has done his best to support the troops by getting them out of harm's way.  I think that shows a lot more care for the troop's well being than promoting war until victory.


After their original interview some time ago, and subsequent to the reaction to the book, Rita Braver talked to Robert Gates again.

One of the things he's been criticized for (and I agree with) is that he's written critical things about President Obama while he's still in office about ongoing policies, particularly his commitment to the war in Afghanistan.
Gates says he made it clear in the book that he agreed with all of Obama's decisions regarding the Afghanistan war.  His one concern is that the President had reservations whether it would all work.  He thinks that's a fair thing to say.

He also says:

Here I think you have to look at the entirety of the book.  And the fact that it deals with getting into wars, getting out of wars.  And frankly it seemed to me that with the experience and perspective of working for 8 presidents and having been secretary for 4 1/2 years, I didn't think that waiting until 2017 to weigh in on these issues, and in a comprehensive and thoughtful way made any sense.

He continues...

In a way, the way people are looking at the book reflects the polarization of our political process at this point.  A lot of people, not everybody, is going to look at this book in terms of 'how does it advance my particular political agenda', or 'how does it damage my political agenda'.  And my objective was to stand back and try to provide a nonpartisan look at the kc and try to provide a nonpartisan look at the kind of issues that have riven our country and riven our government for the last number of years.

I think Mr Gates is hoping people in the current administration will read his book and learn from it while they're still in office.
I find that interesting above all.
It's both genuine and naive.