Back in January 2011, I unleashed a rude outburst directed at then SecDef Robert Gates, “Robert M. Gates, totally full of it. Totally”, prompted by Bob’s statement that, in five years’ time, North Korea would be able to “target” the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped ICBM. Well, it’s six years and counting, so how’s that “direct…
Tag: Robert Gates
I spent $800 billion in Afghanistan and all they gave me was this lousy tee-shirt
As R. Jeffrey Smith, who hangs his hat at the Center for Public Integrity, so admirably demonstrates, every word of that headline is true, except the part about the tee-shirt. Jeff puts the blame on Hillary, but I’d give the lion’s share to President Obama, who rather gratuitously decided that Afghanistan was the “good war,”…
Orlando explained! Well, sort of.
Over at Bloomberg, Pankaj Mishra gives a nice take on “The Messy Mind of Omar Mateen”, noting that, among other things, “Mateen was mentally unstable, according to his divorced first wife. His Afghan-born father spoke of his son’s hatred of gays. Obama confirmed that the Islamic State had not directed the attack even though Mateen…
Vanneman v. Gates, the struggle continues
Back on Jan. 11, 2011, I unloaded rather loudly on then SecDef Robert M. Gates, in a post rather testily entitled “Robert M. Gates, totally full of it. Totally,” expressing skepticism with regard to Gates’ statement that in five years North Korea would be able to target the U.S. with an intercontinental ballistic missile, which,…
The surge that wasn’t, the surge that didn’t
Max Boot’s rather un-Bootish* review of Robert Gates’ memoir, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, gives me an opportunity to take another whack at Bob, who in some ways was not that bad a SecDef. I mean, he didn’t bomb Syria or Iran. Nice guy! Still, there are things from Bob’s memoir that rub…
Fred Kaplan: Getting Gates right
I’ve taken out some, though only some, of my many frustrations over our bloody and pointless war in Afghanistan by frequently ridiculing the columns of Fred Kaplan on the war. Writing for Slate, Kaplan, who has a lot of experience with foreign affairs, slowly metamorphosed from Afghan cheer leader to cautious skeptic to outright disbeliever…
What Robert Gates said that no one said he said
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, former Secretary of State Robert Gates’ memoirs of his years as SecDef, have been excerpted and/or discussed by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. If you follow this sort of thing, you know that Bob loved Hillary, definitely a feather in her…
Robert Gates and Leon Panetta: They’ll none of them be missed
Last week, that music hall pair, Robert M. Gates and Leon E. Panetta, aka Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, brought their good cop/bad cop routine to Dallas, Texas to answer questions about President Obama’s proposed incredibly small bombing of Syria. Gates, aka “The Thoughtful One,” said it was a bad idea while Panetta, aka “The…
Robert M. Gates, totally full of it. Totally.
“Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned on Thursday that North Korea was within five years of being able to target the continental United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile, and said that, combined with its expanding nuclear program, the country “is becoming a direct threat to the United States,” today’s New York Times reports. According…
Does that mean we lied? Part II
The way David Ignatius tells it, Secretary of Defense Bob Gates will do anything to express his sorrow for the deaths of innocent Afghan civilians killed by U.S. troops. He’ll even stand in the hot sun, wearing a pinstriped suit! According to Ignatius, Gates also announced that “United States will adopt a new approach of…