Gates Must Go

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been one of the more influential Defense Secretaries of our time.  He re-instituted a sense of responsibility in DoD (see various USAF/USA officials fired for myriad offenses), he was a steady transitional hand as a new team took over from the Bush Administration, and his effort to derive efficiencies within the defense budget has been instrumental in (for the moment) holding off even deeper cuts. A master bureaucrat, Gates has tamed DoD to an extent that Mr. Rumsfeld could only have dreamed of.

But it is time for Mr. Gates to go.

The US is currently fighting a war in Libya that it seems clear the Secretary did not want.  His public statements have been notable for their honesty and for the contradictions they pose with administration policy, especially as enunciated by the President at NDU Monday night.  While I agree completely with what I discern to be Mr. Gates' opposition, that he cannot seem to publicly muster the ability to lower his shoulder and support the President DEMANDS that the President ask for his resignation.  Interestingly, the fact that the President had been so hesitant to intervene in Libya--followed then by a strong rationale for doing so--makes this week's very public turnover of leadership to NATO (and the concomitant decline in US kinetic air power engaged) seem like just the latest sign of utter policy breakdown at the highest level.  Mr. Gates' "farewell tour" has already been too long, yet it may well be that the President asked him to stay on just a little while longer as Libya was undertaken.  If that is the case, the President may come to regret that decision.