Former US Defence Secretary spills the beans
Former US Defence Secretary Robert M Gates's headline-grabbing insights on the Obama White House reiterate the general consensus on the incumbent President's policymaking record: Though it may be well-intentioned, it is often half-baked. This is especially true with regard to the war in Afghanistan. In 2009, President Barack Obama ordered a troop surge, in keeping with his commitment to fight the ‘good' war in Afghanistan (as opposed to the ‘bad' one in Iraq) but he seemed to have lost faith in the military effort by 2011, says Mr Gates in his recently published memoir. In Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War, he explains how, by that time, a disappointed Obama didn't “believe in his own strategy” anymore and didn’t “consider the war to be his”. For the President, Mr Gates says, “it was all about getting out”. And he couldn't be any more accurate on that count. Once the White House had decided that America would not be able to win the war in Afghanistan, it couldn't be bothered much about the geo-strategic implications of a premature withdrawal, either within Afghanistan or the region. There is no denying that the fragile gains made this past decade in the war-ravaged nation are still vulnerable and can be reversed. The Taliban is already gaining ground and will try to re-impose its writ on the people; in such a case, it is unclear if the Afghan security forces will be able to hold down the fort. Similarly, the Government in Kabul will also require the support of the international community for the foreseeable future. The continued presence of American troops, even after the drawdown later this year is crucial. However, a cloud of uncertainty looms on the issue as Washington, DC and Kabul quibble over the nitty gritties of the bilateral security agreement. A lot of hard-nosed bargaining is underway from both sides but surely it doesn't help matters if Mr Obama “can't stand” the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as Mr Gates notes.
To understand some of the problems that plague Mr Obama's foreign policy (and indeed his domestic policies too — think of the disaster that is Obamacare, his flagship healthcare reform initiative), excerpts from the former Defence Secretary's memoir provides some interesting pointers. For instance, in the case of Afghanistan, Mr Gates flags the “Obama White House's lack of appreciation — from the top down — of the uncertainties and inherent unpredictability of war.” This could be in part because the President seems to have a trust deficit with the military. Mr Gates quotes President Obama as saying that he felt “gamed by the military” and observes the Commander-in-Chief didn't seem to have faith in his top deputies in the field. He also makes amply clear his disapproval of the President's coterie of young, civilian advisers who seemingly kept old military hands, like Mr Gates himself, at a distance. Interestingly, this is a point that journalist James Mann's also makes in his 2012 book The Obamians.