{"id":1354,"date":"2014-04-03T19:11:05","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T00:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=1354"},"modified":"2014-04-03T19:11:05","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T00:11:05","slug":"robert-gates-and-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/robert-gates-and-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Gates and ‘Duty’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I recently read Robert Gates\u2019 memoir, \u201cDuty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,\u201d an engaging account of his tenure as secretary of defense under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, from 2006 to 2011. It is quite unlike any political memoir or autobiography I have read \u2014 utterly unvarnished, plain-spoken and as candid account of Gates\u2019 years serving two presidents during two wars as one could possibly expect.<\/p>\n

The advance reviews made a big deal of Gates\u2019 criticism of Obama\u2019s leadership in pursuing the war in Afghanistan. Bob Woodward in the Washington Post<\/i> notes Gates concluded the president \u201cdoesn\u2019t believe in his own strategy, and doesn\u2019t consider the war to be his. For him, it\u2019s all about getting out.\u201d Of Vice President Joe Biden, Gates wrote, he couldn\u2019t help like him and considered him a man of integrity, but he \u201cnevertheless was wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gates \u2014\u00a0who served under five presidents before Bush \u2014 didn\u2019t spare W. either, writing that, \u201cPresident Bush always detested the notion, but our later challenges in Afghanistan \u2014 especially the return of the Taliban in force by the time I reported for duty \u2014 were, I believe, significantly compounded by the invasion of Iraq. Resources and senior-level attention were diverted from Afghanistan. U.S. goals in Afghanistan\u2026 were embarrassingly ambitious and historically na\u00efve compared with the meager human and financial resources committed to the task, at least before 2009.\u201d<\/p>\n

It should be noted that date is when Obama took office and eventually, if reluctantly, agreed to an increase in fighting forces in Afghanistan even as troops were drawn down in Iraq.<\/p>\n

But the examples above are simply the headlines, the low-hanging fruit in a nearly 600-page, meticulous but plain-spoken account. Gate readily admits his own mistakes and failings, has little patience with the self-serving climate of Congress, and so clearly took to heart the huge responsibility he bore for sending men and women into harm\u2019s way. Each night he personally wrote letters to the families of those killed in action.<\/p>\n

Gates found much to admire about Obama, including the president\u2019s steadfastness during the successful raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Obama managed to persuade him to stay on as defense secretary far longer than Gates wished to do so. After leaving a job he truly loved as president of Texas A&M, Gates had reluctantly returned to government service, having already served as director of the CIA and a member of the National Security Council in four administrations. But his devotion to the troops kept him on despite his wish to retire to his beloved Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n

|\u2014\u2014\u2014|<\/p>\n

In fall 2003 I was on a panel of three journalists at A&M talking to students about how to maintain a civil discourse between government and the media. Gates, still university president at the time, was the opening speaker and stole the show. He began with a wry aside about how it was an oxymoron for a former CIA director to talk about how to have a relationship with the press. He then made clear he understood the role the media play, the shortcomings of \u201cgotcha journalism,\u201d but that the press plays an all-important role as the government\u2019s watchdog. He concluded by saying, \u201cThe press is the surest way for the people to know the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

I came away that day impressed with this physical unimposing man of average build with a slight paunch, thinning hair but a piercing stare. After reading \u201cDuty,\u201d I am convinced that Gates is the rarest of public servants, someone who consistently tried to do the right thing for his country, for the presidents he served, and most of all, for the troops that he put in harm\u2019s way. For someone who had such a distinguished career, Gates comes across as humble and unassuming \u2014 traits that would have served well the presidents who relied upon him, including Obama.<\/p>\n

We need more public servants like Robert Gates in positions of power, but they are a rare breed these days, I\u2019m afraid. Reading \u201cDuty\u201d makes that all the more apparent.<\/p>\n

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Print this entryI recently read Robert Gates\u2019 memoir, \u201cDuty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,\u201d an engaging account of his tenure as secretary of defense under Presidents George W. Bush […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[49,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-columns","category-columns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1355,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions\/1355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}