The first paragraph of this article says it all. He’s hoping Iran will tell us to put up or shut up.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Stepped up U.S. military activity in the Persian Gulf is to counter “very negative” behavior by Iran and undercut its belief that American forces are overcommitted in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.

Gates said the time is not right for diplomatic talks with Iran, but left open that possibility for the future.

After meeting with senior officials at NATO headquarters, Gates was asked at a press conference what was behind the Bush administration’s decision to deploy a Patriot missile battalion and a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf region - moves announced in connection with a further buildup of ground troops in Iraq.

He noted that the United States has taken a leading role in Gulf security for many decades.

“We are simply reaffirming that statement of the importance of the Gulf region to the United States and our determination to be an ongoing strong presence in that area for a long time into the future,” he said.

Gates, who as recently as 2004 publicly called for diplomatic engagement with Iran, said the situation has changed. In 2004 Iran was concerned by the presence of U.S. forces on its eastern and western borders, in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recently, the Iranian government has come to see it differently, he said.

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“We need to make damned sure that the neighbors understand that we’re going to be here for a long time _ here being the Persian Gulf,” said Gates.

Check out this “think tank”

Victory is still an option in Iraq. America, a country of 300 million people with a GDP of $12 trillion, and more than 1 million soldiers and marines can regain control of Iraq, a state the size of California with a population of 25 million and a GDP under $100 billion.
Victory in Iraq is vital to America’s security. Defeat will lead to regional conflict, humanitarian catastrophe, and increased global terrorism.

Iraq has reached a critical point. The strategy of relying on a political process to eliminate the insurgency has failed. Rising sectarian violence threatens to break America’s will to fight. This violence will destroy the Iraqi government, armed forces, and people if it is not rapidly controlled.

Victory in Iraq is still possible at an acceptable level of effort. We must adopt a new approach to the war and implement it quickly and decisively.

Scarey stuff……..read more here

But of course it is. Not to worry you war profiteers. And here’s the thing. This war in Iraq has so tore up our equipment……add that to the cost of this bloody war. How much will it cost us to get military equipment back in order? God what a mess this man has left. Worst President ever!!!

By Roxana Tiron

Robert Gates, the incoming Pentagon chief, has spurred high expectations of change in U.S. strategy in Iraq, but the defense industry does not anticipate any major changes in budget and policy decisions that could curtail their business, at least for now.

The Senate confirmed Gates this week, allowing him to start his new job at the Pentagon this month, about a month and a half before the Department of Defense submits its budget request for 2008.

There will be very little Gates can change regarding a process begun months ago and nearly finished, several defense insiders said. But he will come into his own after a few months and be able to influence the 2009 defense budget, lobbyists said.

During his Senate Armed Services confirmation hearing Tuesday, Gates said that he is prepared to consult the administration and Congress if he thinks changes to the 2008 budget are needed.

“But I would also say, just looking at it as I understand it, as a percentage of GDP, defense spending, even with the cost of the war in Iraq, [is] at a relatively low level compared to most of post-World War II experience,” he said during the hearing.

Lobbyists are less concerned with assessing Gates’s impact at the Pentagon than with trying to gauge decisions that defense-related committees and subcommittees will make under Democratic leadership.

Read more at The Hill

I won’t even go into what a disapointment this is. Unfuckingbelievable.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — By a vote of 95-2, the Senate approved President Bush’s defense secretary nominee Wednesday, a day after the nomination sailed through the Armed Services Committee.

Robert Gates, a former CIA director, will be sworn in December 18.

Two Republican senators — Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Jim Bunning of Kentucky — cast the only no votes.

“He’s the right guy at the right time,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina.

During Wednesday’s debate on the nomination, it seemed Democrats had been successfully wooed by Gates.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said he was “favorably impressed” by Gates’ candor and forthrightness.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who has been a vocal critic of Bush’s Iraq policy, added that he believes Gates will be “an independent thinker and give candid and frank advice to the president about a way forward in Iraq.”

However, Kennedy warned, the American people “are demanding a lot more than a change of faces at the Pentagon … They’re demanding — and they deserve — a comprehensive change in our policy.”

More at CNN.com

Senate panel unanimously approves Gates nomination

By Gordon Lubold

The man tapped to run the Pentagon said he will respect the military he is charged to lead and will not be afraid to tell President Bush what he thinks.

Then Robert Gates, nominated by Bush to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld put his money where his mouth is by saying the U.S. is not winning the war in Iraq.

The committee wasted no time approving Gates- nomination, voting unanimously after the hearing to send the nomination to the full Senate, which could act as soon as Wednesday, aides said.

Gates appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to be grilled by Democrats and Republicans on just how he sees the job as Pentagon boss and what he would do in Iraq. A former CIA director who is now the president of Texas A&M University, Gates said he wouldn-t be afraid to tell Bush the truth.
…

Gates, who accepted Bush’s nomination because he said he thinks he can bring something to the job, said he isn-t returning to Washington to be “a bump on a log.”
…

Asked straight out at the hearing by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., whether the U.S. is winning in Iraq, Gates said: “No, sir.” He later said he believes the United States is neither winning nor losing, “at this point.”

Gates also said bluntly that there aren-t any new ideas on Iraq because most individuals believe in their own entrenched positions. The challenge, he said, is to assemble those different views into a coherent policy that can stand up for the long haul to the whims of presidents and lawmakers.

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He later said he believes the United States is neither winning nor losing, “at this point.”

Maybe he’s not “stay the course”, but I don’t see our troops coming home any time soon either. I don’t have a good feeling about this man… but I hope he proves me wrong.

Someone tell me why this guy is going to be the next Secretary of Defense? That he’s not Donald Rumsfeld…..doesn’t do it for me.

Dec. 04, 2006 | Robert Gates won’t be forced to run much of a gauntlet Tuesday during his Senate confirmation hearing on the way to becoming the next secretary of defense. The former CIA director has bipartisan support. And during his interrogation, Washington’s near-total preoccupation with the situation in Iraq will crowd out any serious probing of Gates’ past, including his murky role in the Iran-Contra scandal and the cooking of intelligence on the Soviet Union during Gates’ tenure at the CIA more than a decade ago.

Lawmakers from both parties seem to agree that Gates’ speedy accession is owed to a key qualification — that Gates is not Donald Rumsfeld. When he announced his support for Gates recently, incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that fact is “the one thing he has going for him.”

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And the word from the Dems is……………. …………………. ……………… …………….

WASHINGTON - In the 14 years since he left government, former CIA director Robert Gates has advised 10 different companies, assessing issues as varied as Saudi Arabian oil drilling, mutual funds performance and restaurant sales at Romano’s Macaroni Grill.

“I first sought him out because I considered him to be of exceptional good judgment and intelligence,” said Rodney B. Mitchell, president of the Houston investment firm The Mitchell Group, which used Gates as a senior adviser.

As Gates awaits Senate confirmation to serve as President Bush’s secretary of defense, ethics watchdogs worry about the revolving door between government and private business that allowed Gates to align himself with defense contractors, investment houses and a global drilling company involved with Vice President Dick Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton Inc.

More here

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (UPI) — Robert Gates, the nominee to replace U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, is unlikely to take office until January.

“My understanding is Mr. Gates has a couple of other obligations,” said Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff.

Ruff said Gates, now the president of Texas A & M University, has promised to be at graduation ceremonies in mid-January.

However, Gates is scheduled to face the Senate Armed Services Committee next week for his nomination hearing. Presuming the committee approves him, the entire Senate would be able to approve him shortly thereafter.

Rumsfeld has said he would serve until Gates is sworn in, but President George W. Bush in early November declared Rumsfeld would be, on Dec. 29, the longest serving defense secretary in history, suggesting that the schedule of succession would be orchestrated to give Rumsfeld that distinction.

A Pentagon official told UPI Monday Rumsfeld has “no desire for an artificial date” to end his tenure.

“He said ‘as soon as is practical,’” the official said.

Gates still has to get through his confirmation and there is a possibility it could be rockier than expected: on Friday, newly declassified documents concerning the Iran-Contra arms scandal were released by the National Security Archive, a project funded by George Washington University in Washington.

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By Jennifer Glaudemans, JENNIFER GLAUDEMANS is a former CIA analyst and an attorney.
November 21, 2006

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence asked me to testify at the confirmation hearings for Robert M. Gates, who had been nominated to be director of Central Intelligence.

I was asked because I had worked in the CIA’s office of Soviet analysis back when Gates was the agency’s deputy director for intelligence and chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

More specifically, I was asked to testify because of my knowledge about the creation of a May 1985 special National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that had been used to justify the ill-fated deals known as Iran-Contra.

It seems like a long time ago now. Iran-Contra is just one of many scandals that have come and gone in the intervening years. But today, in the aftermath of the U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence - and with Gates poised to reemerge, this time as secretary of Defense - it is worth remembering some lessons from the 1980s about how intelligence was politicized to support ideologically-based positions.

Continue reading at LATimes