Bob Gates, America's Secretary Of War

60 Minutes: Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates Talks About Iraq, Afghanistan And His Job

(CBS)  He calls himself the "Secretary of War." Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense for both Presidents Bush and Obama is the man in charge of winding down the war in Iraq and building up the war in Afghanistan.

60 Minutes and correspondent Katie Couric flew with him to Afghanistan just over a week ago. He went half way around the world to see the troops and to fire their commander, General David McKiernan.

Gates wants General Stanley McChrystal, a counter-insurgency expert, to implement the new U.S. strategy, which includes adding 21,000 more American combat troops to secure the cities and villages, and hold them until Afghan forces can grow and take over.

How long will it be before they even begin to take the lead in military operations? While we were in Kabul, Gates told us it will take at least two to four years.

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"War is inherently unpredictable. Okay? And the enemy always has a vote. But that would be our anticipation," Secretary Gates told Katie Couric.

"Then U.S. troops will definitely be here at least through the end of President Obama's current term? Is that accurate?" Couric asked.

"We'll see," Gates replied. "This is a war."

"At the same time, don't you think that people in the United States deserve some kind of idea of how long this commitment will be?" Couric asked.

"I think what the people in the United States want to see is the momentum shifting to see that the strategies that we’re following are working," Gates said. "And that's why I've said in nine months to a year, we need to evaluate how we're doing."

Asked what it would take for U.S. troops to be out in four years, Gates said, "You're asking me to make up a fairy story. I don't know what it would take. What it would take is the Afghan army growing and doing its job well. It would take the effectiveness of our own strategy and our own forces. It would take bringing better governance to the country. It would take a lot of different things to have a finite time when we can say, 'We're out of here.'"

"I don't believe in those stories. I've been around too long," he added.

When we landed in Kabul, Gates was met at the airport by General McKiernan, who he fired over dinner later that night. Gates said he wanted fresh eyes and fresh thinking to lead the war - a war that has been going badly.

Roadside bomb attacks rose 33 percent last year, with U.S. and coalition deaths up more than 20 percent. U.S. troops have complained that they're under-manned and under-equipped. Gates has made it his mission to change that.

We flew with him to three U.S. bases in southern Afghanistan. Our access was unprecedented. He usually avoids the spotlight, and he's so low-key that "Bob Gates" is hardly a household name. At Camp Leatherneck, he was even misintroduced to the troops as "Bill Gates."

But whether they know his name, they do know that he has gotten them stronger vehicles to survive roadside bombs, better body armor, and better battlefield intelligence. And he has cut by a third the time it takes to get a wounded soldier to a hospital.

"We sent out ten additional helicopters and three more field hospitals. We hope that we don't need it for any of you, but I want it to be there for you if it is needed," he told soldiers in Afghanistan.

At the Pentagon, before the trip, Gates told Couric the troops in harms way are his top priority.

"You've signaled you want to change the culture at the Pentagon. What about the culture here needs changing?" Couric asked.

"I want a part of this building that comes to work every single day, asking themselves, 'What can I do to help the soldier in the field today? What can I do to make them successful in the field and bring 'em home safely?'" Gates explained.

But Gates said that instead of helping today's soldiers battle insurgents, too much of the Pentagon has been focused on future conventional wars. "I wanted a department that frankly could walk and chew gum at the same time, that could wage war as we are doing now, at the same time we plan and prepare for tomorrow's wars," he said.

So, his new budget cuts some billion-dollar futuristic weapon systems, and instead provides more protection for troops on the battlefield.

The U.S. will have 68,000 troops in Afghanistan when the surge is completed this fall. NATO will have less than half as many, which makes no sense to Gates because terrorist plots spawned in the region are aimed at Europe as well as the U.S.

"I've been disappointed with NATO's response to this ever since I got this job," Gates told Couric. "NATO as an alliance, if you exclude the United States, has almost two million men under arms. Why they can't get more than 32,000 to Afghanistan has always been a puzzle to me."

"A puzzle, but it must be maddening as well," Couric remarked.

"Frustrating," Gates said.

[DEFarrington]

I think there is more to Bob Gates than meets the eye. I'd like to hear all of the fairy tales Bob Gates has to tell us. Clearly what the public wants, or expects is completely irrelevant in the eyes of Bob Gates, and I'm sure, others as well. Keeping us in Iraq, or Afghanistan is not a road I would have had the new President take us down. It would appear that the forces keeping US forces in the Middle East, and Afghanistan are bigger than either the President, or Bob Gates. The unremunerative path we're taking will only serve to ruin our countries economy, and destroy the American way of life.

[nesbitt141]

Excellent story by Ms. Couric. Mr. Secretary tells us no fairy tale and no lies. The troops are not coming out Sooner or Later. I believe this is going to be a Minute!!! Thanks--

[notblue]

It is never a "lost cause" and must not be "mission impossible" when fighting the greatest evil and threat to all modern, xcvilized, free societies namely RADICAL ISLAM and the barbaric savages that adhere to the extremist ideology.

[babooph]

Like Obama,he has been given "mission impossible",seems like the best we have for a lost cause.

[slagboom]

It's laughable for Gates to mock Washington when he has been an D.C. insider all of his professional life and has a ton of scandals hanging around his neck from his CIA days! When one is the number two at the CIA there is nothing good about them. Anyone at that level is intrinsically evil and has been responsible for some of the most gruesome and brutal acts on the planet! There was a good reason why Bush chose him as Sec Def!

[navydog11]

slagboom

Jokes about the egos in DC are laughable? C'mon! Gates is right.....I think I detect a DC-sized ego that doesn't like looking in the mirror.

[debbieqd]

It is amazing how few of the commenters here have gotten the message about why the U.S. needs to remain in Afghanistan. Go online and watch the atom bomb exploding over Heroshima. That could be you in Kansas or North Carolina. The job of a President and a Secretary of Defense is to make sure that doesn't happen -- to you.

It's inconvenient. It's expensive. It costs precious lives. It's not fast. So, one has to ask you, "searingtruth," what good would your economy, fair wages, and constitution do for you if the mushroom cloud lands on your city? You don't think this could "happen to YOU?" Like, YOU won't get cancer? What part of how close the Taliban and al-Qaeda are to Pakistan's nuclear weapons don't you understand?

[kds562]

A Sec Def who doesn't like Wash and politics and cares about the troops - what a refreshing idea (maybe that's why Obama asked him to stay) They know our men and women are flesh and blood, not chess pieces. Cheney/Rummy/Bush lied to get Saddam and sacrificed thousands of lives. Now the Obama admin has to clean up their mess in Afgan.

[brendett]

Dear Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense
If the United States had not stuck there nose in the middle east conflict we would not be fighting this war in the first place.
Back in the day we trained Osama bin Laden too fight his war, now he turn on the United States, way too go United States. Who will be next that we will training in the military and they turn on us once again too use it against the United States? darn are we so smart now? Is it another Vietnam war when will we ever learn about other countries you cant not trust them to do what's right there way is not our way.

Now Osama bin Laden is our number one enemy of the United States! WHO'S NEXT THAT WE TRUST FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY? UNTIED STATES GOVERNMENT IS REALLY A BUNCH OF STUPID PEOPLE they don't listen to we the people they just sweep us under a rug and forget us!

SO LONG AS YOU PAY YOUR FEDERAL INCOME TAX TO GOVERNMENT SO THEY CAN BAILOUT EVERYBODY AND FIGHT A WAR OVER OIL !

UNTIED STATES GOVERNMENT WORRIED ABOUT THE UNITED STATES SAFETY MY BEHIND, OUR CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT KNEW THAT 9-11 WAS GOING TO HAPPEN SO THAT PRESIDENT BUSH COULD DECLARED WAR ON TERRORIST!
IF THEY DID KNOW THEN WE NEED TO DISMANTLE THE CIA, RIGHT ALONG WITH THE UNTIED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE IN MY BOOK!!!!! SOMEONE WAS SLEEPING ON THE JOB BACK ON 9-11.

[cbsnewscomme]

Why I, an American became a Taliban.....

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/sec-defense-robert-gates-leftover-scab-iran-contra-scandal

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/afghanistan-pakistan-taliban-seek-north-vietnam-military-advisors

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/taliban-squads-reported-kashmir-support-india-troops

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/taliban-are-gods-great-people-voiceforpeace

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/electricity-ends-terror-threat-and-excessive-military-spending

[nextgenman09]

Gates is just OBie's lap dog. He's certainly no Rumsfeld; he doesn't have either the intelligence or the vision. He'll succeed in turning Afghanistan into another failure for America - so the Liberals will have another "victory" for their policy of isolation and appeasement.
Posted by neo267-2009

You are right. Gates is no rumsfeld. Gates cares about the troopes. rumsfeld was part of the bush/chaney criminal enterprise.
Posted by woodjd42 at 2:27 AM : May 18, 2009
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And Rumsfeld was no Secretary of Defense. A complete bungler who lost two wars.

[woodjd42]

Gates is just OBie's lap dog. He's certainly no Rumsfeld; he doesn't have either the intelligence or the vision. He'll succeed in turning Afghanistan into another failure for America - so the Liberals will have another "victory" for their policy of isolation and appeasement.
Posted by neo267-2009

You are right. Gates is no rumsfeld. Gates cares about the troopes. rumsfeld was part of the bush/chaney criminal enterprise.

[mariahwelch]

Robert Gates is not President Obama's "yes man" just as he was not G.W. Bush's "yes man". Gates is/was a man with his own mind and his is no angry faker. You put alot out there in cyber but Robert Gates walks the walk.

[searingtruth]

"Obama's supporters now consist mainly of those who supported Bush."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[neo267-2009]

Gates is just OBie's lap dog. He's certainly no Rumsfeld; he doesn't have either the intelligence or the vision. He'll succeed in turning Afghanistan into another failure for America - so the Liberals will have another "victory" for their policy of isolation and appeasement.

[searingtruth]

"There is a battle for good. But we are not fighting it."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[stn_sage]

Every day that we remain in Afghanistan, lessens the possibility that Mr. Obama will be re-elected to a second term in office!

And, at some point, whether it's this Fall or next Spring---if we're still there---the public will hold HIM accountable for it! It will become HIS war!

At that point---he will have lost the trust of the liberal left and independents to the point that he will never be trusted by them again, nor will they vote for him again, either!

[budmag06]

"Bob Gates, Obama's WEAK Secretary Of War" Obama's "yes" man.

[searingtruth]

"One small drop of blood from the innocent.
Horror is often described that way."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[inventagod]

Propaganda from the Bu$h Crusades...

http://men.style.com/gq/features/topsecret

[cattiej]

correction...we are going to have to bring our troops home to protect us from all the countries and people of these countries who Hate America and Americans.