The Danger of Keeping Robert Gates

[babsbunny]

http://www.truthout.org/111408A

Thursday 13 November 2008


by: Robert Parry, Consortium News


Press reports say Barack Obama may retain George W. Bush's Defense Secretary Robert Gates as a gesture to war-time continuity, bipartisanship and respect for the Washington insider community, which has embraced Gates as something of a new Wise Man.

However, if Obama does keep Gates on, the new President will be employing someone who embodies many of the worst elements of U.S. national security policy over the past three decades, including responsibility for what Obama himself has fingered as a chief concern, "politicized intelligence."

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. ...is that he is Robert Gates.

:think:

[leveymg]

2. Yes, but he has been a constructive force regarding Iran and Persian Gulf diplomacy

For opposing the Cheney-neocon rush to conflict with Iran, we have to thank him. He is one of the realists - we could've done a lot worse at SecDef the last couple years.

[Joanne98]

3. Thanks for posting. Gates has a long career of RW evil.

There also were concerns about Gates's role in misleading Congress regarding the secret Iran-Contra operations in the mid-1980s, an obstacle that had prevented Gates from getting the top CIA job when Casey died in 1987.

Plus, in 1991, Gates faced accusations that he had greased his rapid bureaucratic rise by participating in illicit or dubious clandestine operations, including helping Republicans sabotage President Jimmy Carter's Iran hostage negotiations in 1980 (the so-called October Surprise case) and collaborating on a secret plan to aid Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein (the Iraqgate scandal).

[yy4me]

4. I wonder if he could be trusted not to steer the new administration

away from things that would reflect badly on the old boys. Obama should make a clean break from these last 8 years so that the new staff can delve into anything and will not make any conscious effort "not" to look under certain rocks.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Gates has done an excellent job as Sec. of Defense in a very difficult position.

We don't have to like the Sec. of Defense.