Critics of the Bush administration were handed another sweet victory shortly after the midterm elections. One day after the elections, on Nov. 8, President George W. Bush announced that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was going to resign and promptly nominated Robert Gates as his replacement.
Rumsfeld's tenure at the Defense Department included some of the greatest controversies in recent memory involving the U.S. military. Examples include the decisions to invade Iraq and Afghanistan with minimal numbers of troops, as well as the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse incidents. Furthermore, Rumsfeld was an alienating force within NATO, frequently angering U.S. allies such as France and Germany. In short, Donald Rumsfeld ranks very low on the list of former U.S. defense secretaries.
Rumsfeld's successor, Robert Gates, was sworn in as Secretary of Defense on Dec. 18, 2006. Now that Gates has had nearly three months to get acclimated, it is possible to evaluate just how well he is shaping up compared to his predecessor.
To start with, Gates has a strong background within the intelligence community. According to his Department of Defense biography, beginning in 1966 Gates spent 27 years working in the CIA, eventually rising to CIA Director during George H.W. Bush's administration. Managing an organization with the size and scope of the CIA has definitely helped prepare Gates for his tenure as Secretary of Defense.
Over the past three months, the new Defense Secretary has not been idle. In some of his first discussions with NATO allies, Gates attempted to heal the rifts that his predecessor had created within the alliance. For example, at a conference in Munich, Gates said, "I am told that some have even spoken in terms of 'old' Europe versus 'new,'" referring to a well-known Rumsfeld belief that the "old" European countries such as Germany and France no longer had a role to play in the alliance. Gates revealed what he thought of that idea saying, "These characterizations belong to the past." Hopefully Gates can continue in this vein and work to further mend the strain of the Iraq war on the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Another example of Gates' willingness to embrace change at the Pentagon has manifested itself with his response to the crisis surrounding recuperative health care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After media reports began surfacing about poor infrastructure, excessive paperwork and overworked personnel, Gates very quickly moved to institute change within the military medical hierarchy. To begin with, he removed the commander of Walter Reed — Maj. Gen. George Weightman — from his post. Soon after, Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey resigned from his office. It's likely that Gates played a large hand in this decision. On the surface, at least, this shows that the new secretary of defense is willing to hold officials accountable for the actions that occur on their watch, something that Rumsfeld was unwilling to do in the Abu Ghraib scandal.
However, a couple of points remain that raise some doubts about how the Secretary of Defense may act in the future. For example, Gates has been one of a number of government officials asserting Iranian interference in Iraq. He has played up the role of Iran in supplying new and more powerful types of roadside bombs to Iraqi insurgents, even though the hard evidence for this seems fairly sketchy and thin. This sort of talk makes me leery, as it comes a little too close to building a case for war with Iran.
Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether or not Gates will blindly follow the Bush administration's war-fighting plans in Iraq. Already The New York Times has reported that Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno has privately said the increase in troop numbers in Iraq will be needed into 2008. Faced with increasing strain on the military, will Gates stand firm on the need to tone down the operational tempo of the military, or will he bow to political pressure from the administration?
Overall, Gates' first three months as secretary of defense have been a welcome relief from the pride and arrogance of Donald Rumsfeld. He has managed to handle controversies like Walter Reed relatively well and has proven a much better representative of American defense policy abroad. If Gates can successfully navigate the United States through the remainder of its stay in Iraq — no easy feat — he may be remembered fondly as the man who helped reverse the follies of the Rumsfeld years in the Pentagon.
Andrew Wagner ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in computer science and political science.
