http://www.mediaite.com/tv/robert-gates-i-agreed-with-all-the-presidents-decisions-on-afghanistan/Robert Gates: ‘I Agreed With All the President’s Decisions on Afghanistan’
by Evan McMurry | 12:34 pm, January 12th, 2014
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Face the Nation Sunday morning that he had no regrets about the timing or tone of his forthcoming memoir Duty, excerpts of which stirred up controversy in some quarters this week about President Barack Obama’s faith in his Afghanistan strategy.
“With the experience and perspective of working for eight presidents and having been secretary for four-and-a-half years, I didn’t think that waiting until 2017 to weigh into these issues made any sense,” said Gates, who is recovering from a neck injury.
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While many have read the excerpts as critical of Obama’s foreign policy, Gates maintained that he agreed with the entirety of the president’s decisions.
“I make very explicit in the book that I agreed with all the president’s decisions on Afghanistan, the ones that he made in 2009 and subsequently,” Gates said. “My one concern was that over the course of 2010 and early 2011, the president began to have reservations about whether it would all work. That didn’t seem like an unfair thing to say.”
Watch the clip below, via CBS News:
