Ever since signing on as President George W. Bush’s SecDef in early 2005, Gates has fought to reform the Air Force, improve the Pentagon’s dysfunctional acquisition system, give our troops in the field what they really need and cut through the red tape that’s paid for in red blood.
The greatest sacrifice any top-echelon public figure has made in decades was Gates’ agreement to stay at his post and serve the new administration. He wanted to go back to Texas. Instead, he stood up in the line of fire…
That new administration’s rapidly getting old, but Gates continues to serve, struggling to limit the damage done to our national defense.
Recently, he fought to keep our new nuclear-giveaway treaty with Russia within tolerable bounds. That treaty’s bad — but without Gates it would have been worse. Now we know that he was also pushing on Iran.
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