This one took a long time to read through. Lots of detail
and lots of thoughts about that detail. And while such books often come across
as self-serving, and that holds true in this one as well, I still think about how well we would be served by having
leaders like this former SECDEF working today as a bulwark against
hyperpartisan leaders who can only serve one party or another versus serving
the country regardless of party.
He highlights that character matters, which oddly, some
folks try to argue is no longer relevant.
He highlights the critical roles that the press and Congress
play, even when he has felt he doesn’t enjoy working with them from time to
time.
He highlights how personally upset he felt when senior
military and civilian leaders did not seem to take the current wars he was overseeing
(Afghanistan and Iraq) as important and urgent.
And he highlighted how he was inspired every time he got to
talk to the service-members out in the field, in combat environments, or in the
hospitals recovering from combat-related injuries.
The other book I just finished was critical of U.S. foreign
policy and was critical of both civilian and military leaders in execution of
that foreign policy. One of the themes was that the DIME (diplomatic,
information, military, economic) whole of government foreign policy strategy
had really devolved to a Military heavy strategy with just a smidge of the D,I,
and the E thrown in. Gates argues along similar lines suggesting the military should
be the last resort, not the first, and questions, as many in the military do,
whether the military is the solution to the problems that the military is handed
and asked to address. Gates and others rightly point out that when the other
instruments of national power have been defunded and disregarded and become
essentially powerless, the default is to turn to the military as the only
answer- even if it is absolutely the wrong answer for the problem.
Even though I have never been terribly focused on who the SecDef was
during my 27 years in the military, more focused on the jobs or tasks at hand,
I’m glad we had Sec Gates at the helm for the years he served under Bush and
Obama. I felt in reading this text, again with the caveat of this being his
version of what happened, that this was a man of honor, who served with the
best interest of the service-member and the nation in mind.
Would that we could have that same trust in leadership at
all times. We as citizens should be asking this of all our elected and
appointed officials. That they be people of character and honor first. That
they put service and country before self.
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