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The Wanderer
As many of you know Donald Rumsfeld has resigned his post as Sec Def.
The new man for the job is former CIA Director Robert Gates, as most know any new person to the post always brings their personal style and plans for the military, Rumsfeld was known for being for reducing the size of the army and resisted for a long time increasing the size in any way. He had a history of cancelling major projects A-12, the Comanche etc, I don't intend to debate the merits of those decisions, my idea is to speculate and discuss what Mr Gates will bring to the job.
Some details:
Retired Maj. Gen. Mike Davidson, former assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, notes that Gates is respected among military officers. Gates served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era, but does not have extensive military experience.
Webster, the former CIA head, says of Gates: "I know him as a man of exceptional character, someone who headed the Eagle Scouts nationally. He's an educator, bright, with a lot of qualities that will help carry us forward, including the ability to attract consensus and get information."
A native of Kansas, Gates spent nearly 27 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, which he joined in 1966. He is the only career officer in the agency's history to rise from entry-level employee to director.
Gates has served six presidents, of both parties, and spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council.
Since leaving the CIA, Gates has often weighed in on U.S. policy and security. Excerpts from some of his speeches and articles are below:
Gates on U.S. Iran Policy
In 2004, Robert Gates was among a group of foreign-policy experts who advocated a selective engagement with Iran:
"It is not in our interest for Iran to have nuclear weapons," Gates said. "It is not in our interest for Iran to oppose the new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq. And if we can engage them and try and bring some progress in those areas, then our interests have been served. And that's what it's all about."
Gates also said that if the United States were to open lines of communication with Iran, that would not be sending a mixed message.
"Well, are we rewarding bad behavior by talking to the Libyans?" Gates said.
"Are we rewarding bad behavior by talking to the North Koreans? We're trying to figure out how to limit the national security risks to the United States from policies that Iran is following.
"We don't have much of a voice in that effort right now. We're basically sitting on the sidelines," Gates told NPR's Michele Kelemen in July 2004.
The Role of Intelligence
In 1999, Gates discussed the CIA's Cold-War role. Excerpts are below.
"First, you must remember that CIA, like the Presidents it served, was under political attack from both conservatives and liberals from the early 1970s on, and probably long before that. Liberals generally opposed CIA's operational activities and believed it exaggerated the Soviet threat. Conservatives, on the other hand, were critical of CIA's assessments of the Soviet Union which they considered too soft and skewed by CIA's involvement in the arms control process."
"All in all, CIA uniquely among the world's intelligence services, endeavored to conduct its operations according to presidential directive under the rule of law and in every way possible consistent with American values. No one can or will deny that there were lapses and failures and that the Agency paid a high price for them. But in a shadow war that ranged across the globe for nearly five decades, such failures were remarkably few and far between."
"The truth is, I suspect I'm the only CIA officer to have had two Secretaries of State, a Secretary of Defense, and the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party all try at different times to get me fired. A dubious distinction that would have turned a lesser man's hair gray."
Details Courtesy http://www.npr.org/
So the main premise is to establish ideas on what influence the new SecDef will bring to Acquisistions, Size etc.
The new man for the job is former CIA Director Robert Gates, as most know any new person to the post always brings their personal style and plans for the military, Rumsfeld was known for being for reducing the size of the army and resisted for a long time increasing the size in any way. He had a history of cancelling major projects A-12, the Comanche etc, I don't intend to debate the merits of those decisions, my idea is to speculate and discuss what Mr Gates will bring to the job.
Some details:
Retired Maj. Gen. Mike Davidson, former assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, notes that Gates is respected among military officers. Gates served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era, but does not have extensive military experience.
Webster, the former CIA head, says of Gates: "I know him as a man of exceptional character, someone who headed the Eagle Scouts nationally. He's an educator, bright, with a lot of qualities that will help carry us forward, including the ability to attract consensus and get information."
A native of Kansas, Gates spent nearly 27 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, which he joined in 1966. He is the only career officer in the agency's history to rise from entry-level employee to director.
Gates has served six presidents, of both parties, and spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council.
Since leaving the CIA, Gates has often weighed in on U.S. policy and security. Excerpts from some of his speeches and articles are below:
Gates on U.S. Iran Policy
In 2004, Robert Gates was among a group of foreign-policy experts who advocated a selective engagement with Iran:
"It is not in our interest for Iran to have nuclear weapons," Gates said. "It is not in our interest for Iran to oppose the new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq. And if we can engage them and try and bring some progress in those areas, then our interests have been served. And that's what it's all about."
Gates also said that if the United States were to open lines of communication with Iran, that would not be sending a mixed message.
"Well, are we rewarding bad behavior by talking to the Libyans?" Gates said.
"Are we rewarding bad behavior by talking to the North Koreans? We're trying to figure out how to limit the national security risks to the United States from policies that Iran is following.
"We don't have much of a voice in that effort right now. We're basically sitting on the sidelines," Gates told NPR's Michele Kelemen in July 2004.
The Role of Intelligence
In 1999, Gates discussed the CIA's Cold-War role. Excerpts are below.
"First, you must remember that CIA, like the Presidents it served, was under political attack from both conservatives and liberals from the early 1970s on, and probably long before that. Liberals generally opposed CIA's operational activities and believed it exaggerated the Soviet threat. Conservatives, on the other hand, were critical of CIA's assessments of the Soviet Union which they considered too soft and skewed by CIA's involvement in the arms control process."
"All in all, CIA uniquely among the world's intelligence services, endeavored to conduct its operations according to presidential directive under the rule of law and in every way possible consistent with American values. No one can or will deny that there were lapses and failures and that the Agency paid a high price for them. But in a shadow war that ranged across the globe for nearly five decades, such failures were remarkably few and far between."
"The truth is, I suspect I'm the only CIA officer to have had two Secretaries of State, a Secretary of Defense, and the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party all try at different times to get me fired. A dubious distinction that would have turned a lesser man's hair gray."
Details Courtesy http://www.npr.org/
So the main premise is to establish ideas on what influence the new SecDef will bring to Acquisistions, Size etc.