I have been generally pleased with the job Robert Gates has done as Defense Secretary, both under Obama and under Bush. I was a lonely voice who said he was a decent pick to replace Rumsfeld despite his ties to the Iran-Contra Affair and his perjurious testimony before Congress. In retrospect, he’s probably the best nomination that Bush made for anything in his entire eight years in office. But I opposed his continuation as secretary in the Obama administration.
Now, I was one of the lonely few liberal commentators that counseled against getting worked up about Gates’ nomination. Yes, he was tangentially involved in Iran-Contra, and he did give misleading (perhaps, perjurious) testimony to Congress. But he represented a return to ‘realism’ in the Bush administration and was one of the best realistically available replacements for Rumsfeld at the time. Gates has been an advocate for closing Guantanamo Bay and against a preemptive attack on Iran. That he has gathered enough confidence in the bipartisan Establishment to be seriously considered for a continuing role in an Obama administration is a testimony to his better than average (for a Bush appointment) performance.
But, having said that, he cannot be permitted to remain in charge of the Pentagon. At least, not for very long. It isn’t that he’s done a terrible job. The problem lies elsewhere. The Pentagon is rotted through with corruption, especially in procurement and subcontracting. The whole edifice needs to be ripped up and strong oversight needs to be put in place, both internally and externally. Gates didn’t create this problem, but he didn’t solve it, either. On top of that, there are serious issues at the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency related to domestic surveillance. All of that has to be assessed and addressed. Gates would have too many conflicts of interest to ably preside over such a mission.
Gates has to go.
It was inevitable that some elements from Gates time serving in the Bush administration would remain in the Obama administration, and it was equally inevitable that some of those things would come back to bite Obama in the ass.
It’s time to be realistic about Afghanistan. And it’s time for some clean hands at the Pentagon. Bob Gates has served his purpose. He’s actually done a pretty good job of cleaning up Rumsfeld’s mess and of being a team player in the Obama administration. But there is just too much rot in the Pentagon from the Bush years for someone who served during the Bush years to be credible enough to clean it up. If Gates remains, bad things will happen. He should stay no later than the end of the year.