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| Backgrounder on Robert Gates: not a Bush 41 Realpolitiker |
| 2006-11-19 |
| RARELY HAS THE PRESS gotten a story so wrong. Robert Gates, President Bush's choice to replace Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, is not the point man for a boarding party of former national security officials from the elder President Bush's administration taking over defense and foreign policy in his son's administration. The media buzz about the realists of Bush 41, so cautious and practical, supplanting the idealists of Bush 43, whose grandiose, neoconservative thinking got us stuck in Iraq, is wrong. President Bush--the current one--decided to hire Gates two days before the November 7 election. He didn't consult his father. He didn't talk to James Baker, his father's secretary of state and now co-head of the Iraq Study Group, whose official advice on Iraq is expected in December. Nor did he tell Rumsfeld that he was lining up someone to take his job. Before hiring him, Bush had to make sure Gates didn't think America's intervention in Iraq was a mistake and wasn't deeply skeptical of Bush's decision to make democracy promotion a fundamental theme of American foreign policy. With Gates, it came down to this: "The fundamental question was, was he Brent Scowcroft or not?" a Bush aide says. In Bush 41, Scowcroft was the national security adviser, Gates his deputy. Scowcroft, a realist, is a sharp critic of both Bush's Iraq strategy and the democratic thrust of his entire foreign policy. And Scowcroft has gone public with his strong opposition in articles and interviews. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal agrees with you, Captain America. It's just that Fred Barnes writes in this article as if he has inside information on what's been going on recently. And I'd be much happier if Mr. Gates isn't a Bush 41 retread... |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-11-19 09:42 |
| #1 We will see. Fred Barnes bats about .350 these days |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-11-19 02:31 |