SecDef Gates: ‘Everybody ought to just shut up.’
13 November 2009 7:00 am by Taylor Marsh
updated below
The latest embarrassment came when Amb. Eikenberry’s private advice to Pres. Obama on not sending troops leaked, ending up in wide coverage of a possible “off-ramp” and “withdraw” plan. It’s political poison for the President to have these possibilities swirling when you’re deliberating. And Gates, who has weighed in positively on Obama’s work through of the situation, saying that for the first time we’re actually going to have a strategy, registered his displeasure openly.
“I think a lot of different places are leaking,” he said. “I’m confident that the Department of Defense is one of them.To have details or options that are being considered out there in the middle of the president’s deliberative process I think does not serve the country and it does not serve our military.’’
Mr. Gates then added a threat. “And frankly if I found out with high confidence anybody who was leaking in the Department of Defense, who that was, that would probably be a career-ender,’’ he said.
There is also only one way to interpret the leaks, which even Gates admits is, for one, coming from inside the Defense Dept. Whether people inside Defense respect Obama or not, it’s clear that some do not like where the policy is headed. You can’t say he’s got enemies, but you certainly can say people are working against Pres. Obama in a manner that is unacceptable. It should be a career-ender.
UPDATE: Dr. David Kilcullen, who’ll I hear next week talk about Afghanistan and Pakistan, blasts Obama in a report by the Guardian.
“Time is running out for us to make a decision. We can either put in enough troops to control the environment or we can credibly communicate our intention to leave. Either could work. Splitting the difference is not the way to go,” Kilcullen said.
“It feels to me that all these options are dangerously close to the middle ground and we have to consider whether the middle ground is a good place to be. The middle ground is a good place on domestic issues, but not on strategy. You either commit to D-Day and invade the continent or you get Suez. Half-measures end up with Suez. Do it or not do it.”
