Word: warring
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...soldiers. After a stint at the Pentagon, Zembiec went back to Iraq, where he was killed in action. Gates stumbled on his words as he went on and could barely finish. He'd been Secretary of Defense for just seven months. They were the bloodiest months of the war. Maybe these soldiers were dying for naught. By the time he uttered the words that Zembiec had fallen, everyone, including Gates, was in tears. (See pictures of 100 years of the U.S. Army Reserve...
...late 2008, with the Iraq war and Bush presidency winding down, Gates made plans to leave the Pentagon. Just before the presidential election, Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed contacted Gates. Would he be interested in staying on? Would he meet with Obama about it? Gates prepared some questions. He wanted Obama to know where he was coming from. Obama read them over and told Reed, "They're right on target. I'm impressed, and it'd be useful to have a conversation with...
...their secure phones, comparing notes before they go to the White House. They meet once a week and have lunch at either the Pentagon or State every month. ("The notion of Condi and Rumsfeld having lunch together? Or Rumsfeld and Powell?" says a Clinton staffer.) Not long after the war-council meetings drew to a close and Obama gave his West Point speech, I asked Clinton about Gates' methods. "He listens more than he talks. He is very careful about when he intervenes and what he says because he knows his words carry a lot of weight," she said...
...though everyone talks about bringing soft power and a civilian surge to Afghanistan, in reality there are very few civilians to surge with. From the moment Gates put McChrystal in charge of the war, the military usurped control of the Afghanistan debate; ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who reports to Clinton as her special envoy to the region, was relegated to the sidelines...
...that dexterity? Is there a Gates vision or doctrine? Or is the end the master he serves, the duty of service, like the Eagle Scout he was? When I put this question to him, he talked about the consistent focus on reforming the Pentagon's way of thinking about war and seeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through...