# Bob Gates as Sec. of Defense? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 8, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583 "2006-11-08T18:19:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/1 "2006-11-08T18:19:57Z")
Who is [this man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates) and what will he do as Secretary of Defense? What does this mean for Iraq? ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/2 "2006-11-08T18:23:29Z")
Beat me to it. Besides the fact he’s a friend of the Bush family, a former CIA guy, and the current pres. of Texas A&M, I know nothing about the guy, or why he should be Sec. of Def. at all. ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/3 "2006-11-08T18:48:47Z")
I’d rather see [this man](http://www.sf-radio.net/24/charaktere/bilder/heller_james.jpg). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/4 "2006-11-08T19:01:11Z")
I’m NOT doing a GD thread on the elections because there are a couple in here already that will address my questions well enough. At least if we can keep a decent signal/noise ratio. What _does_ a new SOD mean for the Iraq conflict? (I know, SOD is just begging for noise) How would a Demorat House & Senate have affected Rummy? We’re already in his war so there’s not a lot for them to override. What is the likelihood that what’s left of the Bush Administration (BA, heh) will be hobbled into lame-duckdom for the next two years? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/5 "2006-11-08T19:17:05Z")
[Walsh Iran/Contra Report Chapter 16 Robert M. Gates](http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_16.htm): > [@](#): > > Independent Counsel found insufficient evidence to warrant charging Robert Gates with a crime for his role in the Iran/contra affair. Like those of many other Iran/contra figures, the statements of Gates often seemed scripted and less than candid. Nevertheless, given the complex nature of the activities and Gates’s apparent lack of direct participation, a jury could find the evidence left a reasonable doubt that Gates either obstructed official inquiries or that his two demonstrably incorrect statements were deliberate lies. Daniel Ortega can’t be pleased with this development. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/6 "2006-11-08T19:30:00Z")
I don’t think it will make a lot of difference in the goal. It might make a difference in the details of the conduct of operations. Listening to GW’s speech, at least as much of it as I could stand, I heard him speak of the message from the electrion. His reading was that the voters want politicians to stop the partisan bickering and adopt a bipartisan approach. Unhappily, GW’s definition of bepartisan is that everyone agree to advance his agenda. He seems to me to believe that our federal government is a one man show. He seems to believe that the purpose of congress is to pass laws making legal whatever he wants to do. And the congresses during his terms have given him reason to believe this. Gates will have as his ultimate objective the task of making the military in Iraq try to do a better job than did Rummy of carrying out GW’s desires. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/7 "2006-11-08T19:31:31Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] [Walsh Iran/Contra Report Chapter 16 Robert M. Gates](http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_16.htm): Daniel Ortega can’t be pleased with this development. [/QUOTE] Wow, sounds like he is gonna be described as a forthright, honest guy. I hope we get to find out what Bush’s #2 choice is. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/8 "2006-11-08T20:00:35Z")
My guess is we will. How does it work? Status quo until the next guy is nominated, protracted battle in the Senate over the current nominee? Ought to last a good long time, right? ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/9 "2006-11-08T20:31:02Z")
So, if this guy’s as lousy with Iran-Contra as it seems, what do you suppose are the chances the Dems will try to block this guy’s nomination with something procedural until the losers exit? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/10 "2006-11-08T20:47:40Z")
[QUOTE=Loopydude] So, if this guy’s as lousy with Iran-Contra as it seems, what do you suppose are the chances the Dems will try to block this guy’s nomination with something procedural until the losers exit? [/QUOTE] I think it would be a mistake to make a fuss over Gates–as detestable as the I/C business was, there’s no real smoking gun with Gates, and the Dems are going to have a ton of bitter fights with Bush in the future. That Rumsfeld is gone so quickly is a miracle, and you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Anyone would’ve been better than Rummy, but getting rid of him was still a huge concession for W. Dems should streamline this appointment to show they mean business about putting Iraq’s resolution first, since stonewalling here is going to make them look obstructionist, when the real need for showing a united front against the Pres. will undoubtedly be necessary over and over in the months to come. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/11 "2006-11-08T20:54:02Z")
How did he come to be a member of the “Iraq Study Group”? Does anyone know much about his specific contributions? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/12 "2006-11-09T03:31:03Z")
Well, this is a hopeful thing towards the end of the Faith-Based politics. Gates is HW’s man, and Bush has always been leery of accepting daddy’s help. Thing is, things are so bad that if he has to… well, honestly, daddy’s men are really damn capable people. I’m not saying Gates was on my list of people who could save Iraq, but this is a guy who knows how to work hard and do things right. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/13 "2006-11-09T23:07:24Z")
[Tom DeLay](http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/09/gates-delay/) hates him, which is an optimistic sign IMO. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/14 "2006-11-09T23:10:10Z")
What is it with these Delay interviews? The guy keeps turning up like a bad penny lately. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/15 "2006-11-09T23:15:52Z")
[Newsweek remembers Gates’ past](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15627855/site/newsweek/): > [@](#): > > But some of Gates’s old critics—who not coincidentally have also been critics of the current Bush administration’s Iraq policy—maintain he is not necessarily the best candidate for the job of correcting a war policy that is seriously off course. > > When he heard today about Gates’s nomination, “I nearly choked on my sandwich,” said Mel Goodman, a former Soviet analyst at the CIA who testified against Gates’s nomination to be CIA director in 1991. “This is not a guy who’s ever been accused of speaking truth to power. If you’re looking for somebody who’s going to change Iraq policy, he’s hardly the guy to do it. The only policy he’s going to consider is what is acceptable to the White House.” > > During his 1991 testimony, Goodman testified that Gates, as deputy CIA director, consistently politicized intelligence-community reports about Iran, Nicaragua and Afghanistan in order to cater to the hard-line anti-Soviet policies of the Reagan White House. Gates’s role as deputy CIA director “was to corrupt the process and the ethics of intelligence on all of these issues.” When Goodman protested his actions, Gates “went off like a Roman candle,” Goodman said today. “It was the same kind of manufacturing of intelligence” in the run-up to the Iraq war, Goodman said. > > Congressional records and transcripts extensively document the debate over Gates’s credentials and record in the Bush and Reagan administrations. In one case, Democrats accused Gates of helping to push an allegedly contentious report about the Soviet Union’s influence in Iran. > > One of the most controversial intelligence issues concerning Gates, as CIA No. 2, involved an investigation into contentious allegations that the Soviet Union played a role in the 1981 shooting, by a Turkish extremist, of Pope John Paul II. According to Senate transcripts, the CIA prepared a memo outlining the case for Soviet complicity in the attack on the pope and in a cover letter forwarding the document to Reagan. Gates allegedly stated that the intelligence review upon which the memo was based was comprehensive. However, a CIA internal review later denounced the memo as being skewed, and Gates himself later admitted the document had been based on thin evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/16 "2006-11-09T23:23:18Z")
> [@](#): > > However, a CIA internal review later denounced the memo as being skewed, and Gates himself later admitted the document had been based on thin evidence. So the nation can rest assured that Gates _is_ the kind of guy who’d lead us off to invade a foreign country on the basis of trumped up evidence? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/17 "2006-11-09T23:33:41Z")
[http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/09/the\_cheneygates\_cabal.php](http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/09/the_cheneygates_cabal.php) This is Ray Mcgoverns take. He is a long time CIA analyst. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/18 "2006-11-12T02:52:24Z")
According to the article **gonzomax** linked to, Gates is the one who promoted those who shaped the intelligence reports to suit Bush and Cheney’s agenda about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: > [@](#): > > Gates is the one most responsible for institutionalizing the politicization of intelligence analysis by setting the example and promoting malleable managers more interested in career advancement than the ethos of speaking truth to power. That article makes me shudder. Good find, **gonzomax**. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/19 "2006-11-12T03:10:45Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] [Walsh Iran/Contra Report Chapter 16 Robert M. Gates](http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_16.htm): Daniel Ortega can’t be pleased with this development. [/QUOTE] I think you are onto something here, IIRC recently there was a report on Bush ordering the US Army to start training once again members of the Latin American military from nations that lost that opportunity after the school of the Americas was allegedly disbanded. I think that Bush is looking to say to the extreme conservative elements in Latin America that they are not forgotten. I know Gates will be concerned mostly with Iraq, but I do think he was chosen also for the big political picture. I oppose his appointment, if all what he said in his defense on the Iran/contra hearings was true, he was an incompetent, proud to had his head in the sand, fell up guy like Negroponte. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-gates-as-sec-of-defense/379583/20 "2006-11-13T22:11:31Z")
Just think we can have Gates Gate.