Bob Gates, America's Secretary Of War

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

(CBS)  Deliberative, decisive and calm also describes Bob Gates. An Eagle Scout from Kansas, he has served eight presidents. But this Washington insider prefers being outside Washington, a city that he says is too full of egos.

"Washington is the only place in the world you can see a prominent person walking down Lovers' Lane holding his own hand," Gates joked.

The troops appreciated his Washington one-liners. "Washington is the place where those who travel the high road of humility encounter little heavy traffic," Gates joked. "A place where so many people are lost in thought because it’s such unfamiliar territory."

So, 60 Minutes asked him why he agreed to be Secretary of Defense for President Bush and to stay on under President Obama.

"I do it because it's my duty," Gates said. "And I do it almost exclusively for these young men and women in uniform out here. And whatever I can do to help them, the rest is all fluff as far as I'm concerned."

He takes his commitment to the troops very personally.

"I know you went to Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran’s Day and you went to see who had died on the day you were sworn in," Couric remarked. "Why did you do that?"

"It just mattered to me. And I keep track of the number who have died and the number who have been wounded on my watch," he replied.

"Since the hour I was sworn in as Secretary of Defense, 1,327 American men and women in uniform have been killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan; 10,443 have been wounded. Each of them is in my thoughts and prayers every day," Gates said during a speech at Texas A&M.

Bob Gates takes his work home with him. He goes to bed at 11 and gets up at 5 a.m. And he avoids the Washington dinner circuit.

"But even if you don't like Washington, you like your job. Don't you?" Couric asked.

"The truth of the matter is being Secretary of War in a time of war is a very painful thing. And it's not a job anybody should like," Gates said. "How can you like a job when you go to Walter Reed and you know you sent those young men and women in harm's way? Every single person in combat today I sent there. And I never forget that for a second. So no, I don't enjoy my job."

[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
-------------

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.