I get a creepy feeling whenever the name Bob Gates is mentioned. He is a native Wichitan and a former Air Force Officer. I was on my way home from work and about a block from his childhood home when I heard that Poppy Bush had nominated him to be the Director of Central Intelligence. The hair on the back of my neck went up then; and it went up Wednesday when George Bush named him as his nominee to replace the departing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.Gates is a career spook, and an ideologue to boot. He was up to his eyeballs in Iran Contra and that Lawrence Walsh never brought charges against him just tells me that he was better at covering his tracks than the ones who got caught. Absence of evidence is not the same thing as absence of guilt.
Gates was the original facts-fixer. George Schultz complained bitterly about Gates, and recounted the following exchange in his memoires: "You deal out intelligence as you deem appropriate. I feel an effort is made to manipulate me by the selection of materials you send my way."
Back in these days, Gates' most ardent supporter was then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.
An anti-Soviet hawk, and closely allied with the core group of people who would later be identified as Neocons; Gates was wrong about Gorbachev, and if he had won out over Jim Baker, the Cold War would not have ended when it did and it would have probably bankrupted both countries, not just the Soviet Union. Back then, Gates was a Soviet Expert and Deputy Director of the NSA, and Condi's mentor.
I have some ideas for Secretary of Defense that would be much better than Bob Gates. Three names top my list.
First is Sam Nunn who for years was the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He would do a fine job in the position, and since he is a Democrat, Bush would get to trot out that bipartisanship he discovered the day after the election.
Second is Admiral Bobby Inman. When President Clinton nominated Inman to replace Les Aspin as Secretary of Defense the Republicans in the Senate baselessly attacked the mans character and professionalism and behaved like jackasses; simply because he was a Clinton nominee. The Republicans who attacked him then and are still around would likely sit on their hands if Bush were to nominate him to the same position.
Third is Clinton's final Secretary of Defense William Cohen. He has experience in the position and since he was a Republican Senator for many years he should enjoy wide bipartisan support. He also oversaw Kosovo operations and not a single American life was lost. I appreciate that, since I had some skin in that game.
There you go. Three qualified and capable nominees, each one of whom would be a better choice hands down to replace the departing Rumsfeld than Bob Gates, and the nomination of any one of these men would go a long way toward restoring trust between the military and the civilians who oversee it.
