Gatesgate

[woodchip]

So Bob Gates has written a book and, while some of it is flattering, others parts are not so. So lets take a look:

"discussions in the Situation Room allowed no room for discriminating analysis: Everything was awful, and Obama and his team had arrived just in time to save the day.”

Without "discriminating analysis" how can you save anything?

"He (Gates) also found the president and vice president to be unnecessarily distrustful of the military. One salient story comes in a debate about Afghanistan, after which Biden and Obama called their decision an “order,” which shocks Gates. He writes that the “order demonstrated… the complete unfamiliarity of both men with the American military culture” and “was unnecessary and insulting, proof dispositive of the depth of the Obama White House’s distrust of the nation’s military leadership.”

Maybe this is why Obama has purged over 200 of the military's top officers. Something a good socialist dictator does.

After a story leaked in January 2009 about Israel and Iran, President Obama told Gates that he wanted a criminal investigation into the leaks.
When the McChrystal plan for Afghanistan leaked to The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, according to the memoir, the president raged to Gates, asking, “Is it a lack of respect for me?… Do they resent that I never served in the military? Do they think because I’m young that I don’t see what they’re doing?”

A remarkable sign that Obama doesn't have the confidence nor the self esteem to handle his job.

Now before you think this is only one man, lets take a look at what a British senior Defense Advisor has to say:

"President Obama is “chronically incapable” of military strategy and falls far short of his predecessor George W. Bush, according to one of Britain’s most senior military advisors.
Sir Hew Strachan, an advisor to the Chief of the Defense Staff, told The Daily Beast that the United States and Britain were guilty of total strategic failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Obama’s attempts to intervene on behalf of the Syrian rebels “has left them in a far worse position than they were before.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... world.html

So the next time you are led to think Obama is someone capable of leading this country, someone capable of formulating a coherent foreign policy...guess again.

[Will Robinson]

My favorite WTF moment so far:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid once urged Defense Secretary Robert Gates to spend taxpayer money on researching irritable bowel syndrome.
Gates revealed the strange request in his new memoir, “Duty,” writing that Reid made the plea while the military was fully engaged in two ongoing wars.

“With all the major issues we had to deal with, my personal contacts with Senate Majority Leader Reid were often in response to his calls about Air Force objections to construction of a windmill farm in Nevada because of the impact on their radars,” Gates wrote.

“He also once contacted me to urge that Defense invest in research on irritable bowel syndrome,” Gates continued.
“With two ongoing wars and all our budget and other issues, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

[CobGobbler]

If the President followed what every general said, none of us would be here right now because the Cuban Missile Crisis would have turned out just a tad bit differently.

Sure dude, you can cherry pick bits and pieces out of the book, just like you can read McClelland's book about how much of an idiot George Bush was. Judging the personal conduct of many of the generals quoted in that book, I'm not sure just how much stock I'd put it in woodchip. Personally, I'm glad we have a civilian at the top of the chain when it comes to the military. Commanders are usually concerned with a body count and nothing else--foreign policy has much more to it than just how many bullets find their mark.

[vision]

Man, if only we can get back to the good old days when we had a generals for presidents.

[woodchip]

Man, if only we can get back to the good old days when we had a generals for presidents.

You mean like George Washington and Eisenhower?

[Top Gun]

Maybe this is why Obama has purged over 200 of the military's top officers. Something a good socialist dictator does.

You're serious aren't you.

[woodchip]

Tongue in cheek but 200 were purged which changed how the military allows itself to operate and think. That is the real troubling part, perhaps more than the purging itself.