Bob Gates, the former Bush/Obama Defense Secretary, has a new memoir coming out where he lashes Obama in a way seldom seen. As the Washington Post reported:
Leveling one of the more serious charges that a defense secretary could make against a commander in chief sending forces into combat, Gates asserts that Obama had more than doubts about the course he had charted in Afghanistan.
A few things:
1) Gates also attacked Biden as being wrong on almost every foreign policy issue of the last four decades(this despite Gates being dead wrong on one of the most important foreign policy issues of the 20th century). The man who apparently hated his job at DOD also criticized Obama's political staff as being the most controlling administration since Nixon, an often heard critique of the administration. I must say Gates is onto something here: unelected advisers should not be dictating policy to the President or Secretary of Defense. And many Democrats have complained about the incompetence of Obama and his arrogant staff.
2) I can't help but think "Obama is getting what he deserves." He sowed the seeds for Gates' attack with his idiotic attachment to bipartisanship and consensus. By choosing to hold onto Gates, a Republican--and Bush appointee!, Obama set the stage for this story which will soak up the media's attention for the next few days. Gates never had an allegiance to Obama. For goodness sake, he slams Obama for having the audacity to openly voice his discontent with Saint Petraeus. Ultimately, as the Post article reported: "Their different worldviews produced a rift that, at least for Gates, became personally wounding and impossible to repair." And now who is the Secretary of Defense? Chuck Hagel, a longtime Republican Senator. Obama never learns.
3) Obama is not a good leader. He never has been. The only thing Obama is good at leading is a campaign centered on. . . you guessed it, Obama. Gates described his dithering on issues and how Obama claimed his (and Goldman's Clinton) opposition to the surge in 2007 was because of primary politics, which means he would have supported Bush's surge if not for the nomination battle. I just don't understand this man. I don't know where his policy heart lies or what sort of vision he has for the country. And the only thing I'm fairly certain this vapid man believes in is himself.