The Spy Who Came In From the Freezer

By:  Dr. Leonard Carrier DW In-House Historian and Philosopher

            Robert Gates has been on ice since 1993, when he left his position as Director of the CIA after Clinton became president.  In 2002 Gates became president of Texas A & M University, the institution that houses George H.W. Bush’s presidential library.  Now he has been nominated by George W. Bush to be Secretary of Defense.  So he has been cooling his heels as president of a university that houses the library of George W. Bush’s father.  Is his nomination a coincidence?  I don’t think so.  Gates had a hard time getting confirmed as CIA Director because of questionable behavior in the arms-for-hostages deal involving Iran and Nicaragua.  He was earlier accused of slanting intelligence to favor the views of his old boss at the CIA, Bill Casey, who wanted the threat of the Soviet Union inflated for political purposes. When he was appointed by George H. W. Bush to be director of the CIA in 1991, he was still under a cloud concerning whether he had knowledge of the arms-for-hostages deal.  But the first President Bush persisted with his nomination, knowing that Bush’s own protestations about “not being in the loop” concerning this clandestine deal would be supported by Gates.

            Now we have another president who seeks protection.  The electoral turnaround achieved by Democrats on November 7 shows that George W. Bush’s presidency is in trouble.  So now it’s time to call in one of the cold warriors from his father’s presidency to save the son’s legacy.  The simple truth is that George W. Bush’s presidency does not deserve to be saved.  He led his country into a disastrous and unnecessary war that has killed almost 3,000 of our troops and as many as 790,000 Iraqis—these last numbers supplied by scientists who have reported their findings in Lancet magazine. It seems obvious that Bush’s nomination is a way of providing window dressing for a supposed change of strategy on Iraq.  But it is clear from the president’s pronouncements that he intends to stand fast until he achieves “victory” (whatever that can possibly mean now), and that there is no change in his overall policy of having more American troops and more Iraqi civilians killed to satisfy his stubborn insistence that things are going his way.  Never mind the stunning “thumping” that his Party got in the last election, this president simply won’t change his mind.  What he thinks will appease the electorate is an appointment that his father would—and maybe did—approve, that of an old retainer who was waiting in the wings, who owes his allegiance to the Bush family and whose appointment will do nothing to change Bush’s war policy, but will instead try to make it seem as if this president is actually listening to criticism.

            What is shocking about Bush’s nomination of Gates is not just that Gates has no experience in military affairs, but that Democrats like Harry Reid are already supporting his nomination.  This is not what the electorate wants.  They don’t want Democrats kissing up to the Bush family to save the presidency of the prodigal son. James Webb, the senator-elect from Virginia, gave the best advice on this matter by suggesting that the next Secretary of Defense be chosen by the new Senate.  Webb knows what he’s talking about.  He was Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, and he knows all about the sycophancy that reeks from this nomination of Robert Gates.  So this is a message to Democrats on the Senate.  Don’t agree to confirm Gates as Secretary of Defense.  Rumsfeld is gone.  Let his deputy limp out the remainder of the year.  When the new Senate convenes there will be time enough to evaluate the credentials of someone who is dedicated to getting us out of Iraq, not someone whose job it is to protect the royal heritage.

Leonard Carrier