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Carpet bombing would be completely useless. It’s totally contrary to the American way of war. Total disregard for civilians. So, I mean, part of the concern that I have with the campaign, particularly when it comes to national security, is that the solutions being offered are so simplistic and so at odds with the reality of the rest of the world, with the way the world really works.
— Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, quoted by Politico, saying the GOP presidential candidates “don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Congress is best viewed from a distance — the farther the better — because up close, it is truly ugly. I saw most of Congress as uncivil, incompetent at fulfilling their basic constitutional responsibilities (such as timely appropriations), micromanagerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned and prone to put self (and re-election) before country.
I was offended by his suspicion that any of us would ever write about such sensitive matters.
— Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in his tell-all book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, about President Obama’s warning to “those of you writing your memoirs.”
