Maybe Robert Gates Isn’t So Bad After All
I was just forwarded an email that’s making the rounds at Texas A&M where Robert Gates is currently the President. First is Gates’ letter to staff and students regarding the SecDef announcement :
By the time you read this, the President of the United States will have announced that he will nominate me to be the next Secretary of Defense. I am deeply honored, but also deeply saddened.As most of you know, almost two years ago I declined an opportunity to become the first Director of National Intelligence. I did so principally because of my love for Texas A&M and because much of the program we had initiated to take A&M to a new level of excellence had only just started.
. . .
I apologize for surprising you with this momentous decision and announcement, and for leaving as president before fulfilling my commitment to serve Texas A&M for at least five years. I hope you will understand the circumstances that made this necessary and that this appointment comes nearly as much a surprise to me as to you.I will have more to say to you before I leave (if I am confirmed by the Senate). But I must tell you that while I chose Texas A&M over returning to government almost two years ago, much has happened both here and around the world since then. I love Texas A&M deeply, but I love our country more and, like the many Aggies in uniform, I am obligated to do my duty. And so I must go. I hope you have some idea of how painful that is for me and how much I will miss you and this unique American institution.
At this point, I expect to remain as President of Texas A&M until completion of the confirmation process and a Senate vote. I assure you, you will hear more from me before my departure.
More interesting, however, is the note that accompanied the forwarded letter. (Personal information redacted)
Dear Fellow Aggies (and some who aren’t Aggies but will find this interesting),By now, you’ve probably heard that Donald Rumsfeld has resigned as Secretary of Defense. (Thank God!) Also, you may have heard that Bush has nominated Robert Gates to be Rumsfeld’s replacement. Gates is a former head of the CIA and, for the past two years, has been president of Texas A&M.
Below is an email forwarded to me by _________, ______ professor at A&M. Those of you who went to A&M might remember ________ as a highly intelligent, fiercely liberal prof who loved to stir things up and encourage his students to challenge the status quo and stand up for what is right.
About a year ago, I was in College Station and visited _____ for a few drinks. He told me then of his admiration of Gates, despite some initial apprehension due to Gates’ background, and for what Gates was doing for A&M. He also said that at a recent faculty party, Gates told him that he thought that Bush was the worst president we’d ever had.
If ______ speaks highly of Gates, he must have something going for him. I hope that Gates will use his new position to try to extract us from the quagmire of Iraq and won’t become just another Bush yes man.
Peace,
________
I’ve got an email out to the professor in question to confirm this, so until I do, take this with a grain of salt.
UPDATE : I knew this was too good to be true. I emailed the professor in question about this incident and he responded “In fact, this is NOT TRUE at all. I’ve never been at a party with President Gates, never had a private conversation with him”. The person who relayed this anectdote, when confronted with this information, responded “I think it is possible that I am mistaken. As I said, there were a few drinks involved.” In vino veritas? I guess not…
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November 9, 2006 — How many Democratic senators who voted against the confirmation of Robert Gates to be CIA director in 1991 will vote against him to be Defense Secretary?
The following current Senate Democratic senators voted against the confirmation of Robert Gates as CIA director on November 5, 1991: Max Baucus (MT), Joe Biden (DE), Jeff Bingaman (NM), Kent Conrad (ND), Chris Dodd (CT), Tom Harkin (IA), Ted Kennedy (MA), John Kerry (MA), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Carl Levin (MI), and Jay Rockefeller (WV).
Current Democratic incumbents who voted to confirm Gates included Dan Akaka (HI), Bob Byrd (WV), Dan Inouye (HI), Herb Kohl (WI), Pat Leahy (VT), Joe Lieberman (CT), Barbara Mikulski (MD), and Harry Reid (NV). Republican Senator Orrin Hatch did not vote.
These senators were concerned about the role of Gates in the Iran-Contra scandal and did not believe him to be suitable to head the intelligence agency. Word from veteran intelligence officers: Gates is dirty.
Robert Gates has always been a trusted consigliore for the Bush family. At the Pentagon, he will undoubtedly use his two years to clean up for Dubya and suppress incriminating information on the Iraq debacle — all in a continuing effort to protect the Bush family legacy. His nomination should be rejected.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
Comment by kevkev — November 9, 2006 @ 1:42 pm
Greg,
One of the mistakes Gates and the rest of the Reagan crowd made with the mujahideen was to assume that the enemy of your enemy was is your friend.
I think there are plenty of conservatives who think Bush is an idiot — not that they bothered to publicly express those views any time in the past six years — because he is an idiot, but that doesn’t make them good people by any means. They just disagree with Bush on how to create an American imperium, not that the imperium is, perhaps, not a good thing in the first place.
Comment by darrelplant — November 9, 2006 @ 3:54 pm
Even if Gates is the best choice in the world for SecDef, the main hurdle to be overcome is Dick Cheney. Cheney is the architect of the Iraq disaster. Would Gates be able to keep Cheney in check?
Comment by Kenneth Fair — November 9, 2006 @ 4:04 pm
Unfortunately I do not think there is going to be any good solution to Iraq. I mean a recent estimate said there were 665,000 Iraqi deaths and there are about 3,000 Americans dead as a direct result of the war. How can there be a good solution to that? I think all we are left with is would be how can we pull out of there while doing the least amount of damage to them and us.
You can be sure over the next two years the republicans will use that fact to the hilt despite their own culpability over Iraq.
Let’s face it, Iraq is not a quagmire it actually ranks among the biggest fuck-ups this country ever produced and calling it a quagmire somehow does not do what happened and is happening justice. And Bush does not have a clue as to what to do because he never had a plan other than staying in office and using Iraq to claim more and more power. Everything else is just a by-product to Bush and it is the reason he never had a plan for the invasion or what came after.
Bush told us it would be up to another president to pull the troops out of Iraq, typical of our prez, it is how his whole life unfolded, make messes and let someone else do the cleanup.
What Bush feared the most in this election was losing control of congress because he did not want to be investigated. Well, he lost control of congress and now there will be investigations, lots of investigations. But somehow I suppose Bush will just be able to walk away from it all as his miserable term in office ends. Bush came in like a tiger but chances are he will go out with a whimper. However it happens it will do no good for the hundreds of thousands of people who might still be alive today if Bush had never been born because this has been Bush’s war from the get-go, he pushed and he pushed for it despite all the warnings from people who actually knew something about the Middle East and instead he chose to listen to idiots which made it easier somehow to convince all the other idiots that we had no choice. So here we are and there they are and all we have left is ten pounds of horse manure in a five pound bag.
Comment by rob payne — November 9, 2006 @ 11:56 pm
Gates has been President of Texas A&M since August 1st 2002. Thats 4 years, not 2.
Comment by PiKo — November 10, 2006 @ 12:40 am
TWO years since Bush offered him DCI. He was already at A&M and declined.
Comment by Mr Furious — November 10, 2006 @ 10:37 am
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is! $10 says this was written at the direction of Karl Rove!
Comment by Bwahahahahaha — November 10, 2006 @ 11:13 am
For what it’s worth, Gates personally apologized about his involvement in Iran-Contra.
Comment by Doobie — November 10, 2006 @ 4:28 pm
yessss, Gates will be RATIONAL…that’s it, rational. yeah, yeah.
I’m reminded of an old cartoon when someone is warned by a deep, disembodied voice, “DON’T…..YOU……BELIEVE IT!!!….”
doobie…doobie,doobie, doobie….
Gates’ apology is supposed to count for anything??
“woops, sorry America. I just wiped my ass with the Constitution for craven political gain, and indirectly helped murder civilians caught in the crossfire of the Iran-Iraq war, thanks to my illegal weapons sales. Now, I’m just gonna say I’m sorry, and that’ll be good enough for your stupid ass. Let me lead your sons and daughters in combat! I’ll respect their lives like I respect the law!”
whatcha got in yer pipe man?
that’s like believing the Dems will follow thru on their big promises. They’ll wait for some inane distraction to take your eyes off of them for a second, then go back to servicing their corporate masters.
Of course, the Dems *are* a little slower to drop to their knees when corporate america comes calling, but not by much.
Comment by jomamamama — November 10, 2006 @ 11:00 pm
You have been hoodwinked. This is same circus different clowns. the personality type, the distortion of intelligence, the inability to speak truth to power — all perilous personal qualities. Common Dreams includes this interesting writeup of this guy, and he isn’t an improvement on sliced bread.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1110-28.htm
We just had an election here in CT in which pro gay marriage flyers purporting to be from one candidate (but not)were sent to African American pentacostalists to switch the vote to GOP. How were they targeted?
The Bushies have a finely honed “opinion guidance” tool now, based on combining consumer data with voting history, and you can bet they know where you live and how to get through to you.
You must be listed as an A&M alum, and got the “AGGIES” version of the mass email bomb, using the “he’s one of us” flavor of persuasion to encourage you to support a dangerous guy who is NO improvement over Rumsfeld.
This president and his minions see all problems as public relations problems. They are constitutionally (in both senses) unable to grapple with their own mistakes and shortcomings, and hold tight to their neocon perspectives regardless of the facts. Because they rule from ideology, and not rational, fact based thinking, this is not going to change.
The Iraq War’s current status is a monument to this administration’s failure to come to grips with the hard facts about what’s actually going on in Iraq, failure to place their trust in the best and brightest our military has to offer (who have been repeatedly and systematically ignored and marginalized) and intransigence about departing from a flawed think tank neocon ideology that has put this country in a world of hurt.
They will be dragged kicking and screaming away from this war, make no mistake.
The reason everything looks so deadly difficult is that they are steadfastly refusing to resort to facts and professional advice, and substituting a naive, insular set of unproven theories coupled with a preference for people who are willing to roll over and go along with the koolaid flavor of the day instead of standing up and thinking. They have made a situation which was always going to be challenging into a Sisyphean nightmare because of their subbornness. It’s HARD to plan a strategy when Rule # 1 is don’t look at the facts, and Rule #2 is “select people who agree with us, rather than the most experienced and skilled candidates”.
If you haven’t read FIASCO by Thomas Ricks, just think “The mentality and incompetency of Katrina/levee failure played out in the Middle East” and you will have the executive summary about what’s gone wrong there.
Taking the same mentality in a different skin does not represent a quantum leap in progress or a sea change in the Dept of Defense. I only pray that our retired military officers speak up and object to this charade. Bushco remain unbowed and unchastened, refusing to submit to the rigor of rationality.
Comment by bonica_babe — November 12, 2006 @ 2:11 pm
“For what it’s worth” means just that. It’s an acknowledgement that Gates was mature enough to apologize for Iran-Contra, not an endorsement of him as defense secretary.
Comment by Doobie — November 12, 2006 @ 3:44 pm
Doobie;
an apology is not enough for committing high crimes against the United States, dude.
seriously, what DO you have in that pipe of yours?
If I came to your house and stole all your belongings and shot your dog, would you accept a mere “apology” from me? Would you say, “well, at least he was mature enough to say I’m sorry”? I doubt it seriously. You would rightly want me to be imprisoned, because stealing and needlessly killing animals is illegal.
“I’m sorry” is sufficient for cutting someone off in traffic, or stepping on someone’s toe, but not for LYING TO CONGRESS ABOUT ILLEGAL ARMS SALES TO AN ENEMY NATION.
we’re supposed to gleefully accept an apology from a f-in CRIMINAL?!?!?
No wonder they call it “dope”…..
Comment by jomamamama — November 13, 2006 @ 11:04 am
Ah, the Obnoxious Left. Jomamamama, please get off your high horse and cut out the condescension crap. Your holier-than-thou act might make you feel good inside, but it does no good to anyone, anywhere, and in fact harms our cause. If you want to have a civil discussion about serious issues, fine, then we (as leftists/liberals/whatever) should be able to do just that. Stop declaring yourself the Arbiter of All That is Good & Right, open your mind, and play nice with the other children. Inquiries into what the other children are smoking are generally frowned upon.
Comment by Ben in VA — November 13, 2006 @ 11:48 am