Posted on 11/08/2006 9:51:57 AM PST by mhking
This is just crossing my desk now; nothing follows yet. According to some sources this is the subject of the noon presser.
Donald Rumsfeld Resigning as Defense Secretary
FOX News
AND...Iraq is lost. The pullout will likely begin by the middle of next year -- within 6 months after the Dems are coronated in January.
Shortly thereafter, of course, Iraq will fall apart, the largest portion controlled by Al-Sadr and other Iranian cronies. And it gets worse from there.
That's my biggest fear too. The WOT.
The American people collectively...
Yes it is.
Nobody. The democrats are in charge. We're surrendering. Walmart has already started ordering the discount burkas from China.
Storman Norman would have been a great choice! Heard last night on my way from the State GOP watch party that he had a plan to take out Saddam in the first Gulf War and was stopped by Colin Powell!
Robert Gates.
______________
Thanks, I just heard.
Hopefully the president's choice can get ratified by the
Senate before the leadership change in January.
I know little of Robert Gates, but here is more....
Robert Gates, CIA director and conservative policy wonk
Robert Michael Gates was born September 25, 1943 in Wichita, Kansas. After graduating from William & Mary with a degree in history, Robert headed off to Indiana University, where he received his master's degree in history. He then applied for an earned a grant to attend graduate school at Georgetown University and attend doctoral school for Russian and Soviet history. Upon graduation, he began working for the Central Intelligence Agency.
Over the next 25 years, Gates worked his way up from his entry level position to become the Director of the CIA, the only career officer in the agency's history to do so. Over the years he served on the National Security Council for Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush. In 1986, he was named Deputy Director of the CIA, and in 1991 he was named Director of the CIA, a position he held until January 1993, when he was replaced by James Woolsey.
During his tenure in the CIA, Gates was awarded a number of medals, including the National Security Medal and the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA's highest honor - a medal he earned thrice in his career at the agency. However, he is perhaps most noted for his hardline anti-Soviet stance, one cemented by years of early analysis during the height of the Cold War during the late 1960s. In 1982 when he was named Deputy Director of Intelligence under director William Casey, he used his position to push hard for intelligence that could be used to make the Soviet Union look back. Occasionally this led to incidents where reports were slanted and one-sided, leaving out critical bits of information that would nullify the conclusions of the reports. During Gates' CIA Director confirmation hearings, he was accused of making intelligence political - but the charges were dismissed as being frivolous, and he was confirmed by a large majority.
Gates has kept busy since he left the CIA. In 1996, he published a book, From The Shadows, his insider's tale about the Cold War and its eventual end in 1989. He has also served on the board of trustees for a number of companies, including Brinker International and NACCO Industries, and serves on the board of directors of America Abroad Media, which produces the "America Abroad" radio show in tandem with the international newsmagazine The Economist. In 2002, he was named to succeed Ray Bowen as the 22nd President of Texas A&M University, home to the presidential library of Gates' former co-worker and boss, George H. W. Bush. The appointment comes after serving three years as the Dean of the Government School at A&M.
Despite Gates' conservative political leanings and the general unsavoriness that comes with being associated with the CIA's rather sordid political history, he is a very well-spoken and considerate individual. He is just as quick to admit his failures as take credit for his successes, and in person he strikes one as more of a career bureaucrat than a politician. And, unlike many of his contemporaries, Gates does not seem to have any real egg on his face despite nearly 30 years in Washington, D.C. Whether it's his modest demeanor or his years of experience in keeping secrets, it's a fairly impressive accomplishment in 20th century American politics.
Any truth to the rumor that the U.S. will soon begin negociating a roadmap with Bin Ladin and Zawahiri on a long term peace treaty? Possibly a seat on the UN security council for Al Qaeda and ammending the U.S. constitution to be more Sharia-friendly?
Well, at least it isn't Bill Gates.
My thoughts exactly! What a joke! If this move had been made a year ago, things would be different "the morning after"! Thanks a lot, Rummy! Too little too late!
Gates was there under the toon, when AQ was planning 9/11.
Not so bad really... Rummy is getting to be an old man and cant blame him for all the crap they through at him. Bush needs to appoint a younger military like man. Hope Gen. Tommy Franks would take the position. We need him badly now.
BINGO! This election is a referendum on GWB and the War in Iraq...thinking anything to the contrary is only kidding oneself.
I know...sorry, I should have been more specific....I am just too upset to think straight today......after this presser I am turning off all the news and start concentrating on Christmas shopping and the Holidays for a few days, they I'll climb back up in the saddle.
President Hillary Clinton.
Shit. :(
It is going to get much much worse.
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