Bill Kristol levels a lazy and thankfully brief critique of Robert Gates which is, on the whole, rather disappointing in tone:
"In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should â??have his head examined,â?? as General MacArthur so delicately put it.â?Thus spoke Defense Secretary Robert Gates, addressing the cadets at West Point on February 25. Itâ??s ironic that President Obamaâ??s secretary of defense cites Douglas MacArthur as a foreign policy authority - a general who was fired, as he should have been, by a Democratic president after he botched a land war in Asia, sought to use nuclear weapons, and defied civilian authority. Perhaps Gates should spend his time rereading Matthew Ridgway, or talking with David Petraeus, instead of quoting Douglas MacArthur?
This seems an incredibly petty critique, but it provides the basis for nearly all of Kristol's meandering post. Please; if one can't quote Douglas MacArthur at West Point, where the man graduated first in his class, where can one quote him? If quoting someone favorably is tantamount to embracing or glorifying the whole of their history and ideology, no Republican should ever quote FDR - as many have in recent weeks regarding public employee unions, including Kristol's own publication.
Of course this was not Gates' intent. Kristol should know that when Gates says the word "again," it is an indication that he is speaking about future wars, not ones begun before he became secretary of defense. Kristol should know that when Gates speaks about the changing use of large forces, it's a sign that we are unlikely to use large land-based forces in Pakistan or Iran or China. And Kristol should know that when Gates says we ought to "call a spade a spade" in regards to the Libyan no-fly zone operation, the SecDef isn't being defiant of the president or saying it can't be done, but merely stressing that imposing one is not an easy or simple task - and that it requires more than just throwing planes in the air to get shot at.
Kristol should know these things, and I would suggest he probably does know these things, because he isn't an idiot. But he leveled the criticism anyway, which is disappointing.
I'd encourage people interested in a fuller picture than those covered by this petty sniping to read the Gates remarks Kristol references in context, and to consider Fred Kaplan's take on Gates' farewell tour as an alternate view.
