A glimpse behind the Gates

Robert Gates writes that the US president had no faith in his own strategy of sending in more troops in 2009.

Readers will soon get a glimpse behind the curtains in a soon to be released book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War. Robert Gates is the author and he served as Secretary of Defence from 2006 to 2011 under President Barack Obama, as well as his Republican predecessor, George W Bush. From the text that has been made public thus far, the book contains a combination of admiration and strong criticism for Obama and his administration.

The former defence secretary writes that the US president had no faith in his own strategy of sending in more troops to Afghanistan in 2009. He adds that Obama was more focused on “getting out” in spite of ordering a surge of 30,000 troops, claiming that he was “sceptical if not outright convinced it would fail”.

Perhaps, the most controversial admission to come out of the memoir so far is the following: “As I sat there, I thought: the President doesn’t trust his commanders, can’t stand Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.” That position goes far in explaining why Obama made his 2014 pull-out date public despite the obvious tactical advantage it would give the adversary.

Gates goes on to add that unlike Bush, Obama was not passionate about the two wars. While it appears that Gates was in favour of Bush’s policies, he can’t fault Obama for not being excited about two disastrous wars he inherited from the previous administration. Plus, Obama campaigned on the promise of ending the wars. Another revelation is that Obama was distrustful of his military and the options it presented. Instead, Gates points out the president felt he was being “gamed” by his generals, David Patraeus, Admiral Michael Mullen, etc. As far as Obama’s frustration with Karzai is concerned, that holds true for anyone dealing with the erratic leader of Afghanistan. After all, he’s still toying with the US by not signing the Bilateral Security Agreement despite being warned that failure to do so by December 31 would result in an instant withdrawal of all troops. In fact, according to a new intelligence assessment, Afghanistan is most likely to plunge into chaos by 2017.

While Hillary Clinton was spared, Gates accuses US Vice-President Joe Biden of being wrong on all foreign policy and national security issues over the last 40 years. He also faults the White House staff for being clueless about the realities of war. While the White House has come out to defend the vice-president, others have pointed out some contradictions in the book. For instance, in the end, Gates praises Obama for making all the right decisions on Afghanistan, including the surge which increased the number of troops in Afghanistan.

Ultimately, Gates’ memoir provides a detailed look inside the White House, which has tried to present an image of a cohesive administration in sync with the policies of the president. The former secretary admits that dealing with two wars took a tremendous toll on him and that he felt like he was going to blow up. Gates concludes by stating that his experience as secretary of defence only reinforced his “belief that in recent decades, American presidents, confronted with a tough problem abroad, have too often been too quick to reach for a gun — to use military force” and admits that “wars are a lot easier to get into than out of”.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2014.

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