Changed to “doodie”
Good old Bob Gates; misses the limelight; delights Wall Street Journal with a “neverTrumping” op-ed
“Neither candidate has seriously addressed how he or she thinks about the military or the use of force”
But, ” at least on national security, I believe Mr. Trump is beyond repair…and temperamentally… unfit to be commander-in-chief.”
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In his op-ed this past Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, former Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates “sizes up” the national security credentials of the two major parties’ presidential candidates. In it Gates hauls out the Wall Street Journal’s anti-Trump playbook and regurgitates the major talking points of the Clinton/NeverTrumpers campaign:
– Temperamentally “unfit”, Gates has determined (Bob should really tell us what “temperament qualities” Ms. Clinton possesses that makes her “fit”; and Bob’s own book doesn’t suggest that Barack Obama has a superior “temperament” for leadership. He thinks he’s the “smartest guy in the room”; Obama, Gates claims, told his staff that he “could do every one of their jobs better than they could”.)
– “…Trump’s expressions of admiration for… (Putin)…and his authoritarian regime are naive and irresponsible…” (Note: this from a former Secretary of Defense who served the most “authoritarian” president in US history, and only after belatedly leaving the post, revealed Obama’s serious shortcomings as commander-in-chief; by the way, is it their “admiration”, or fear, that Obama and Hillary Clinton have of the Ayotollah that they’ve given Iran billions to use to spread terror throughout the Middle East and that motivated them to complete the worst nuclear agreement imaginable?)
– his “intention to launch a trade war” (because Trump believes like some of us “deplorables” that a trade pact (TPP) negotiated in secret by the most dishonest president in history is less about trade and everything about Obama’s continuing attack on our nation’s status in the world and his undying desire for UN world governance)
– his “record of insults to servicemen, their families, and the military which he called a disaster”; declaring “our senior military leaders “reduced to rubble” (perhaps Mr. Gates has not noticed the massive Obama purge of our most experienced, accomplished military officers, replaced by “military politicians”, led by an almost comical band of weak and effeminate civilian nitwits including Gates’ successors).
Gates had this to say about a president he served: “…President Obama thinks he is smarter than his advisers and that he surrounds himself with people who will not question his views. As a result, the White House has struggled to develop and implement effective strategy during the Obama administration…”.
Either Bob forgot what exactly he thought President Obama’s “shortcomings” are or he thinks that Hillary is better. Surely, one does not have to remind this former SecDef of Hillary’s side-by-side participation in some of the worst foreign affairs and national security debacles America has ever seen.
As noted above, Secretary Gates seems aghast that Mr. Trump would call the current military a “disaster”. Apparently Gates would heartily approve of the drastic cuts in military preparedness under Obama and Hillary Clinton’s promise to carry on that “good work”. With our Navy reduced to the smallest fleet in decades, a serious weakening in America’s nuclear capability, the dangerously low current manpower levels, it seems difficult to argue that the current state of our military is not a disaster. Secretary Gates presumably believes the active recruitment of transgenders and the directive to Naval personnel that bathrooms are to be open to sailors based upon their gender preference of the day heightens “unit cohesiveness” and elite combat unit effectiveness.
Based on Secretary Gates’ “keen” analysis of the presidential candidates, I am moved to wonder if Mr. Gates had the “temperament” to be Secretary of defense!
We remember reading Aaron Kliegman writing at The Free Beacon:
Gates: Obama Thinks He’s Smartest Guy in Room, Ineffective at Developing and Implementing Strategy
DLH
