Few Cabinet officials in U.S. history have deserved the nation’s gratitude more than Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who will retire at month’s end to his family’s lakefront home on Big Lake in Skagit County.
Gates was the right person for the job at the right time, a national security career man who was enlisted by former President George W. Bush to lead a reversal of U.S. fortunes in Iraq, then asked to stay on by President Obama, supplying crucial continuity to the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. His willingness to serve two presidents of different parties speaks to his selfless devotion to duty, as well as his remarkable skill in navigating political waters.
His leadership style combined a desire to hear a wide range of views with a commitment to accountability, traits often missing in the top-down, don’t-question-my-decision culture of the military — a decidedly positive change from the arrogant, bombastic tenure of his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld.
Two actions early in Gates’ tenure sent a clear message regarding accountability. After a Washington Post investigation uncovered poor treatment and facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Gates fired the Army secretary. Later, he forced the Air Force secretary and his chief of staff to quit after mishaps regarding the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
In both cases, Gates said in an interview last week with the New York Times, he took action not because those leaders weren’t aware of the problems in the first place, but because they didn’t take them seriously enough once they were.
He viewed the Pentagon budget in the context of overall government spending, recognizing the fiscal realities the nation faces. He argued successfully for the elimination of several expensive weapons programs — even against the objections of some contractor-beholden members of Congress.
As his retirement has drawn closer, Gates has been refreshingly blunt about the future of U.S. and NATO military roles in the world.
He warned NATO ministers that U.S. willingness to shoulder the lion’s share of the financial and human burden of allied military interventions was running out, and that failure by European partners to do more would lead to “a dire if not dismal future” for the alliance.
In a February speech to Army cadets at West Point, he revealed his own evolving view of such interventions:
“In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.”
Credible words from a wise public servant. Gates’ replacement, Leon Panetta, and those who follow should consider them carefully.
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