ROBERT GATES: A UNIFYING PUBLIC SERVANT
By Bob Vickrey
                                                   
Waco Tribune-Herald, July 3, 2011

When Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stepped aside at the end of June and took leave of his cabinet post, the occasion marked a rare unifying political moment for many Americans in this time of unparalleled party polarization.

In the midst of a time of skepticism of each party’s agendas, and distrust in our public officials at an all-time high, Secretary Gates, with his measured, reassuring, and unifying voice, has given a cynical and dubious American public a leader that has shown steady and unwavering loyalty to his job and to his soldiers.

Secretary Gates inherited an unenviable job when he relieved his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, who had accepted the position when President George W. Bush took office in 2001. When Gates took the reins in 2006, the country was mired in two unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the challenge fell into his lap to define and clarify our mission in both countries, and address the larger issue of finding an exit strategy while honoring the sacrifices of soldiers who had died and had been wounded in our long national nightmare.

His calm and measured statements in those early press conferences were a dramatic reversal of Rumsfeld’s self-assured, unapologetic, and brash style during his tenure. Many observers felt that Rumsfeld’s contentious and confrontive manner with the media may have eventually alienated those who had initially supported both wars in the beginning. The difference in the demeanor of the two men could not have been more striking.

No one had ever doubted Rumsfeld’s intelligence and his immense knowledge of the inner workings of the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. Nevertheless, his unrelenting style of pushing forward his foreign policy agenda eventually began to tire members of his own party, as there seemed no end in sight to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After Gates’ appointment, his major accomplishment may well have been to encourage members of both parties to suspend the ‘blame game’ about why we had become involved in the war in the first place, and instead, to simply entertain the question: “Where do we go from here?” He engaged us for the first time in the conversation of defining our goals on both fronts, with the ultimate objective of bringing our troops home.

In retrospect, Gates’ appointment may have been one of the highlights of the second Bush administration. When President Obama took office in 2009, he sensed the tide of public opinion about the war had turned and knew that Gates’ mild manner and quiet dignity could serve his administration well, as it had in the last Bush years.

Shortly after taking the job, Gates wasted little time in setting out to improve the conditions in the field. He asked congress for funds that would get soldiers the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles needed to withstand the powerful detonations that they faced on a daily basis.

The Secretary was also responsible for speeding the response time for helicopter medevac units in transporting wounded soldiers to field hospitals. The response time has been cut by more than half now in Afghanistan, and sources say countless lives have been saved in the last three years. He also added three more field hospitals there.

He has personally written over 3,400 condolence letters to families, and was quoted as saying, “There’s probably not a day in the last four years I haven’t wept, and it’s mostly when I’m doing those letters.” When he travels and speaks to soldiers, he occasionally becomes choked with emotion.

Gates has walked the delicate tightrope of making informed decisions based on reports from his generals in the field, while diplomatically disagreeing with his commander-in-chief over the level of troop withdrawals in recent months.

He had surprised a lot of people when he accepted the appointment five years ago. He had a secure future as President of Texas A&M University at the time, and had been fairly removed from the Washington scene for many years after leaving his job as Director of the CIA. His decision to accept the job of Secretary of Defense may have ultimately been a godsend for our troops to be given a chance to make an honorable exit from Afghanistan and finally come home to their waiting families.

During a decade which has been ravaged by two wars, a spiraling national debt, and widespread joblessness, Secretary Robert Gates has remained a steadying force in Washington. He has offered a voice of sanity in the midst of chaos, a beacon of light and voice of reason in a time of political madness.

As he left his post at the end of June, his relentless loyalty to his country and to his soldiers will surely not soon be forgotten.

Bob Vickrey is a freelance writer whose columns have appeared in the Houston Chronicle and Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. He is a member of the Board of Contributors for the Waco Tribune-Herald and a contributor to the Boryana Books website. He lives in Pacific Palisades, California.