Public Statements Of Robert M Gates Secretary Of Defense 2006 2007

Many people don't realize that the Bush administration changed U.S. military policy, particularly towards Iraq, after the congressional elections of 2006. The start of the 110th Congress in 2007, and the shift in Congressional power, also coincided with the decline of the Rumsfeld-Cheney cabal that had been extremely influential in directing the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. military policy in general, prior to that.******The emerging direction of the new U.S. military and defense policy is more pragmatic, less ideological and quietly (though not explicitly) recognizes the failure of policies in the earlier years of the current administration.******The man epitomizing this change more than any other is Robert M. Gates, the man who replaced Donald Rumsfeld as the U.S. Secretary of Defense. With vast experience in public service as well as in academia (he has lectured at Universities like Yale and Georgetown, and was the interim Dean of the Business School at Texas A&M just before being selected to replace Mr. Rumsfeld), he has quietly reversed a number of older policies and brought a much needed pragmatic approach to U.S. policies abroad.******He is also a lively speaker with a great sense of humor. Here are his speeches, as released by the U.S. Department of Defense, from his inauguration to February 2008-the key period when a lot of these changes in U.S. policies were taking place. These provide a valuable insight into where U.S. defense and military policies are headed during the remaining days of the Bush administration.

From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he’d long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.

Having led change successfully at three sprawling, monumental organizations—the CIA, Texas A&M University, and the Department of Defense—Robert M. Gates offers the ultimate insider's look at how leaders can transform large organizations and companies. For many Americans, bureaucracy and corporate structure are code words for inertia. Gates knows that it doesn't have to be that way. With stunning clarity, he shares how simple plans, faithfully executed, can cut through the mire of bureaucracy to reform organizational culture. And he shows that great leaders listen and respond to their teams and embrace the power of compromise. Using the full weight of his wisdom, candor, and devotion to duty, he empowers leaders at any level to effectively implement his leadership strategies.

From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 bestselling memoir, Duty, a candid, sweeping examination of power, and how it has been exercised, for good and bad, by American presidents in the post-Cold War world. Since the end of the Cold War, the global perception of the United States has progressively morphed from dominant international leader to disorganized entity. Robert Gates argues that this transformation is the result of the failure of political leaders to understand the complexity of American power, its expansiveness and its limitations. He makes clear that the successful exercise of power is not limited to the ability to coerce or demand submission, but must also encompass diplomacy, strategic communications, development assistance, intelligence, technology, and ideology. With forthright judgments of the performance of past presidents and their senior-most advisers, insightful ­firsthand knowledge, and compelling insider stories, Gates’s candid, sweeping examination of power in all its manifestations argues that U.S. national security in the future will require abiding by the lessons of the past, reimagining our approach, and revitalizing nonmilitary instruments of power essential to success and security.

"Safe for Democracy not only relates the inside stories of covert operations but examines in meticulous detail the efforts of presidents and Congress to control the CIA and the specific choices made in the agency's secret wars. Along the way Mr. Prados offers radically revised interpretations of classic operations like Iran, Guatemala, Chile, and the Bay of Pigs; accounts of lesser-known projects like Tibet and Angola; and virtually unknown tales of the CIA in Guyana and Ghana. He supplies full details of Reagan-era operations in Nicaragua and Afghanistan, and brings the story up to date with accounts of more recent activities in Somalia, Bosnia, and Iraq, all the while keeping American foreign policy goals in view."--Jacket.