Robert Gates: As Bad as Rumsfeld?

[laststeamtrain]

Robert Gates: As Bad as Rumsfeld?

By Ray McGovern
November 19, 2008

"As Bad As Rumsfeld?" The title jars, doesn't it? The more so, since Defense Secretary Robert Gates found his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, such an easy act to follow.

But the jarring part reflects how malnourished most of us are on the thin gruel served up by the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM).

Over the past few months, Defense Secretary Gates has generated accolades from FCM pundits — like the Washington Post's David Ignatius — that read like letters of recommendation to graduate school.

This comes as no surprise to those of us – including his former colleagues at the CIA’s analytical division – familiar with Gates's dexterity in orchestrating his own advancement. What DOES come as a surprise is the recurring rumor that President-elect Obama may decide to put new wine in old wineskins by letting Gates stay.

What can Barack Obama be thinking?

I suspect that those in Obama's circle who are promoting Gates may be the same advisers responsible for Obama's most naïve comment of the recent presidential campaign: that the "surge" of U.S. troops into Iraq in 2007-08 "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."

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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/111908a.html

[theoldman]

1. Compared to Rumsfeld, Gates is a big improvement.

I am sure that Obama can find a better person but right now may not be the time to make a change. You only change leaders in time of war when the leader is doing a bad job. If he had free will I am sure that Gates could do a better job.

[BridgeTheGap]

2. I'm certain that PE Obama is not looking to hire Rumsfeld! But if McGovern is right,

why would Obama want to keep someone in such a position who is so driven by ambition that he was willing to implement a strategy that killed thousands? And said strategy was apparently driven by one concern: keeping the U.S. in Iraq until Bush & Dick were gone. Gates is far too much of an opportunist for my blood.