Robert Gates: In His Own Words

[rhatsaruck]

Free feature article in the WSJ.

He offers some interesting comments on the idea of "going it alone" against terrorism, the goals of the first Gulf war, and the state of Intelligence.

Unfortunately his comments regarding Iran and North Korea are dated from the mid-1990s. So much has changed since then that I wonder if those comments accurately reflect his current thinking on those issues.

 

[ProfJohn]

On the military

And I think that they try, perhaps even un-consciously, not only to exaggerate the level of forces that will be required to accomplish a specific objective but the casualties as well, in the hope of forcing a sanity check on the politicians or on the civilian experts who have no concept of what it is like to sit there and watch a young soldier bleed and die.

That is what we saw when Senseki <spelling?> said we needed 400,000? to take out Saddam.

I think this will be a good change. He is an intelligence guy, and with the war on terror intelligence is everything.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
On the military

And I think that they try, perhaps even un-consciously, not only to exaggerate the level of forces that will be required to accomplish a specific objective but the casualties as well, in the hope of forcing a sanity check on the politicians or on the civilian experts who have no concept of what it is like to sit there and watch a young soldier bleed and die.

That is what we saw when Senseki <spelling?> said we needed 400,000? to take out Saddam.

I think this will be a good change. He is an intelligence guy, and with the war on terror intelligence is everything.

I hope that's not what he's talking about, otherwise we might as well have you as SecDef. For the last time, Shinseki was talking about that many troops to occupy the country, not take out Saddam, and gee, it looks like he was right. If our new SecDef clings to this fantasy that the experts urging more troops be sent and more planning be done pre-war were just a bunch of silly nancy-boys, we might as well have kept Rummy around. Fortunately, I think this guy pays more attention than you do...lucky us.

 

[Blazin Trav]

Originally posted by: rhatsaruck
Free feature article in the WSJ.

He offers some interesting comments on the idea of "going it alone" against terrorism, the goals of the first Gulf war, and the state of Intelligence.

Unfortunately his comments regarding Iran and North Korea are dated from the mid-1990s. So much has changed since then that I wonder if those comments accurately reflect his current thinking on those issues.

A lot of what he says though is a step in the right direction.

 

[Strk]

So I think it is a cultural thing and I don't second guess the military on that, I think that their concerns are justified, because I have seen a lot of civilians make a lot of proposals for a lot of silly military actions that eventually did not take place. So I understand their caution.

He sounds wise.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
On the military

And I think that they try, perhaps even un-consciously, not only to exaggerate the level of forces that will be required to accomplish a specific objective but the casualties as well, in the hope of forcing a sanity check on the politicians or on the civilian experts who have no concept of what it is like to sit there and watch a young soldier bleed and die.

That is what we saw when Senseki <spelling?> said we needed 400,000? to take out Saddam.

I think this will be a good change. He is an intelligence guy, and with the war on terror intelligence is everything.

You are quoting from a 1996 PBS interview . . . totally out of context with what he had to say about Iraq.

You don't necessarily have to capture Saddam to bring about regime change. All you have to do is remove him from power, and you can go ahead and try and put in a successor regime at that point. I think it is going to be perhaps somewhat more complicated and difficult than some of the people are saying. But I think it's a manageable task. --2003 interview on CNN.