This article certainly falls well short of the caliber of analysis I expect. Is it a surprise that the Secretary of Defense doesn't advocate cutting his own budget? His job is to head the Department of Defense and advocate for its needs. It is the job of politicians to say that defense spending at current levels is unaffordable and must be restrained.

The tone throughout the article suggests that the writers have serious problems with our military, beyond defense spending. They obliquely criticize past Secretaries (not just Rumsfeld) and seem to want to accept nothing less than an Eisenhower figure. But they seem to forget that where you stand depends on where you sit; even Eisenhower criticized the size and scope of some parts of the defense sector only when he moved to a position of wider authority -- again pointing to the fact that this is a political call.

Gates has done a very good job, though not a perfect one, and has made mistakes. He was not a transformational figure. But there's certainly a difference between saying that and suggesting he was not a good and successful Secretary, or impugning his term by insisting it be graded on a curve. In a world where we focus on the possible rather than the ideal, everything is.

Defense Secretary Gates has been a 'major reason' why US Afghan mission is failing because he has justified Pakistan ’s terrorist connections, alluding to a “deficit of trust” between Washington , DC and Islamabad . Mr Gates also said that there was “some justification” for Pakistan 's concerns about past American policies.

Gen David Patraeus, rushed in with an apologia for his Pakistani friends, by claiming that while Faisal was inspired by militants in Pakistan , he did not necessarily have contacts with the militants which is proven to be wrong.

Both Adm Mike Mullen and Gen Patraeus fancy themselves to be “soldier statesmen” a la Gen Dwight Eisenhower. Adm Mullen has visited Pakistan 15 times and Gen Patraeus no less frequently. Both evidently have high opinions of their abilities to persuade Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to crack down on the Haqqani network in North Waziristan and the Taliban’s Mullah Omar-led Quetta Shura.

All American officers in southern Afghanistan know that they can not prevail in the ongoing military operations, unless Taliban strongholds across the Durand Line in North Waziristan and Baluchistan are neutralized. Adm Mullen and Gen Patraeus evidently do not want to acknowledge that hard options have to be considered if their soldiers are not to die at the hands of radicals, armed and trained across the Durand Line. This is where rubber meets the road for the famed General.

One can only hope that with the departure of this 'failing trio' of Gates, Petraeus and Mullen, US policy of mollycoddling Pakistan at the expense of Afghanistan will end even though State Department is still left Pakistan-apologists like Hillary Clinton and Senator John Kerry.

Robert Gates has done a good job as a Dept. of Defense. While raising questions on his position can be revealing, the current article here reads closer to: "If he walks on water, this means he can't swim."

If you have a problem with the budget, do look at other officials, not at him specifically. An unrecommended loss of budget will constraint future decisions. It is usually better to preserve those capabilities and conserve budget elsewhere. Oh, say, the energy industry.

It is sometimes better to stick with the convention - which is that he has done better than average. I can only suggest that he be attracted by a university, which will be looking to solidify its political science department.

To be fair to Gates, his closing down of subdry programs and bases, he never described as cuts. It was newspapers' desire for headlines with nice short words -- "cuts" is a good one -- others took up the cry, and he of course welcomed this, in silence.

Other aspects of the Gates years have been less savory. Consider the Wikipedia entry on ex-general Geoffrey D Miller. Consider the apparently insufficiently pondered decision to appoint general McChrystal to the Kabul command. Consider the extraordinary firing of general McKiernan, big win for the country, apparently no win at all for the nation. Consider the unceasing flow of news releases from sundry military units in Afghanistan offering -- to be polite -- extremely dubious claims of local victories. Consider his largely unremarked announcement in Europe -- not on television in America -- that training Afghan forces was woefully behind because the Coalition wasn't allotting enough trainers to the job. A shortfall of hundreds, apparently.

This is why Gates is so popular. He changed little and shoveled a trillion more to military contractors. He wasted billions delaying our defeat in Iraq, and billions more in Afghanistan. He reversed Rumsfelds directives at cutting fat, like closing Army bases in Germany. He helped lead the nation into bankruptcy while allowing bloated staffs to grow even more. The new Africa Command, the Navy's 4th Fleet, both command nothing. And how left us stuck in Pakistan and Libyan mess.

This is the best piece of defence and Pentagon analysis I've read since Mc Crystal realised he was on the wrong side of the future and decided to bail out with a few deliberate indiscretions executed with flair and aplomb for a military thoroughbred.

As an aside, Gates is a Droid. Quiet people are often over rated and bestowed with abilities they don't have. However Gates served his purpose well given the greater task was for Obama to get to know the military a lot better with very little scrutiny from the media and govcorp.

Great writing and analysis Benjamin and Justin.

Change is coming.

I think unfortunately people just expect perfection from all of these politicians when that is impossible.

Why is it impossible?

Because we all have different views and opinions and it IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to please everyone. There is no way to do it...you just can't. There are so many different kinds of people out there with so many different views and opinions and outlooks on things that no one person would be able to achieve perfection, especially within a political position.

Unfortunately a lot of people just do not understand this, or they simply choose to ignore this fact. And that's because we as Americans put a worldwide brands on politicians as one of perfection - and we expect that out of them, perfection.

It's the same thing with different foreign policies and other different countries. Different people want different things from the United State's allies and wealthyaffiliates, and we want different kinds of relationships with our different allies and wealthy affiliates - and with all of these different wants and opinions no one persons decisions is going to be able to please everyone.

It's just basic human perception - we don't tend to look at it this way because we want what WE want. And we think what WE think is right and what YOU think is wrong. It's just the way we are as human beings.

We expect perfection, yet none of us are anywhere near perfect. Little bit of a double standard there, right?

With that being said, Bob Gates did a good job in my opinion. Of course with everything that I said above I don't expect everyone to agree with that, but I think that most people would agree with that.

Overall he did positive things for this country.

Of course he could have done a better job, everyone could have always done a better job as again, no one is perfect.

But I am please with the job he did when he was the Secretary of Defense, and I hope the next one does just as good as Mr Gates did...

All this article serves is to blame Gates for things far outside of his immediate control. Do not forget he is subservient to the President, both of whom have promulgated a continuance of efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

and, as this article points out, was one of the figures promoting COIN, which even its adherents are falling away from as they go back to old fashioned body counts. Of course, as COINsters tell us, we never understood COIN in the first place. The point is, many of us do understand COIN and realize that for it to work would require resources and commitment beyond the ability of the US or, even if the US were in a position to afford proper COIN, would bring a paltry return.

Gates has been a careerist and loyal bureaucrat, according to his critics, from the beginning. His stepping down now, to this cynic at least, seems like a well timed exit.

The article is more fallacious than anything else. Has a "talking-head" type quality to it. Lots of accusations and incorrect or misrepresented info. Usually see better journalism from FP.

Who is Going to Pay for The Global Interventions? The Status Quo Partisan Politics Must End.

We lost more men in 9 months during the Vietnam war than in the past 10 years of wars and occupations. There is little fighting now but big spending. How many terrorists have we killed? What is our strategy for winning and ending the war, or is this going to be forever?

Instead of engaging in distracting partisan politics with the status quo politicians that have ruined America, we need to focus on the mortal economic and social dangers that we are now facing because of the ruinous policies of these politicians.

We have to end the wars and occupations immediately and all foreign affairs, including foreign aid and military alliances. Europe and Korea among many other countries are rich enough to defend themselves. We now have 3 Muslim wars, plus NATO and the rest of the military waste, all follies are financed by debt that we will be forced to pay.

In my blog, I expose that over 50% of the total USA military forces are war contractors and that 2/3 of their employees are foreigners. We have wasted $5 Trillion dollars fighting Osama's war strategy to bankrupt America as they did the Soviet Union by bringing it into permanent war in the Muslim world. The war contractors and the other special interest groups are making profits from trillions of debt dollars that we'll be forced to pay.

America cannot afford to spend debt money on global empire dreams. The 2011 national debt, national current account balance and other economic indicators show that America has a negative net worth of -$58 Trillion. This is the truth that globalists are concealing and is the inevitable result of the globalist export of America's industry to Communist China and other cheap labor countries plus all the ruinous policies of the two globalist controlled parties that now require that the Federal government must beg and borrow $1.65 Trillion a year to add to the present national debt of close to $15 Trillion.

TEN Generations of Americans cannot pay the 2011 national debt, but the politicians still borrow and spend. 47% of American households are too poor to pay income taxes. The American industrial base is only 9% of the economy. There are not enough taxpayers to support a globalist government that is fueled by debt. Get the truth from my blog. I have a 28 point program to rebuild the American industrial base and to create energy independence.

Roman Gil
http://roman-gil1.blogspot.com

Did he really manage to do a good job? We are still losing soldiers in Iraq! Where are the Code Pink people now, eh? Charity for discredited hacks i say, it's always something of the rival media and in my opinion this is nothing else then the truth. With the Middle East is falling apart, they also face a never ending surging China

As the secretary of defense steps down, it's time to set aside the paeans and reconsider the conventional take on his tenure. This is why Gates is so popular. He changed little and shoveled a trillion more to military contractors. He wasted billions delaying our defeat in Iraq, and billions more in Afghanistan. He reversed Rumsfelds directives at cutting fat, like closing Army bases in Germany. He helped lead the nation into bankruptcy while allowing bloated staffs to grow even more. The new Africa Command, the Navy's 4t howto All this article serves is to blame Gates for things far outside of his immediate control. Do not forget he is subservient to the President, both of whom have promulgated a continuance of efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan..