Comments on: A Closer Look At Robert Gates

Former CIA Head And Bush Family Friend Returns To Government After Serving In Academia

[pakaal]

For Gates' sake he'd better hope the Democrat-controlled Congress agrees with Bush.

[max_grandeur]

I trust President George W. Bush enough, that if he says Robert Gates is right for the job, then he must be the right man. Let's just let the Senate decide.

[pakaal]

The Wall Street Journal reported that %u201CIn the summer of 2004, Gates and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski co-chaired a task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations that argued for opening a dialogue with Iran."

Hmm, maybe Gates could be a moderate voice in all the Middle East mess. I can only hope!

[pakaal]

Hmm, the "right guy"? James Baker comes to mind off the bat.

[pakaal]

He started out in the CIA in 1966, was in the Air Force for two years, joined the National Security Council in '74 (don't know if this was before or after Nixon got impeached), then back to the CIA....

The much-maligned Wikipedia has a good overview of his career:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates

The man is a long-time insider, not a "fresh perspective" as Bush says.

[tibu987]

I have a "gut feeling" that Gates may not "stay the course". He is just another "good ole boy".
Forty years in government??????????

[tibu987]

I don't know about you but I worry that a person who has been in government for so long and who has condoned, at least by association, all the
#@%^@#$ that has gone on in Washigton all those years. I would have preferred to see a younger, perhaps a former military leader, like Colin Powell in the position.
We'll see. If we don't think he is doing the job let's get rid of him quickly.

I really don't know enough about Gates to say he's the wrong guy, but assuming that judgement is valid, who might be the "right" person?

[clestes-2009]

This does not sound like gw intends to work with democrats at all. This guy is of the same ilk as Rumsfeld. I see a battle in the senate over this confirmation.

[pakaal]

Keeping in mind that he was not convicted (unlike Oliver North - who was then pardoned), but Gates was certainly under a lot of suspicion. From review of the investigative sessions:

"The most dramatic testimony came from Melvin A. Goodman, a former division chief in Soviet affairs. He accused Mr. Gates of imposing his political judgments on intelligence analyses without any evidence to back his views, of suppressing his analysts' conclusions, of corrupting the agency's stringent analytical process and of misusing personnel - 'judge shopping the courthouse,' Mr. Goodman called it - until the desired analysis was produced."

We've seen the same thing happen under the Bush administration; career diplomats second-guessing intelligence agencies. I don't think we need more of the same, and judging by the elections, most of America agrees.