Miss ya, Rummy.
Posted on 01/25/2007 7:43:28 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Mr. Gates, it turns out, is a hawk.
In just the last two weeks, he has supported deepening the American military commitment in Iraq, spoken approvingly of sending more troops to Afghanistan and, after dispatching a second American aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, declared that negotiations with Iran right now would be futile.
But a hawk may not be all he is. His favorite quotation from history, he told reporters traveling with him this week for meetings with allies and commanders in Europe and the Middle East, is from Frederick the Great, the 18th century Prussian monarch and gifted musician: “Negotiations without arms are like music books without instruments.”
Or, put another way, it takes military power to create the leverage necessary to make negotiations fruitful.
Mr. Gates seems to be hoping that a short-term application of military might can shift the balance of power in the region sufficiently to make eventual political settlements — between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq, with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and even with the ayatollahs in Iran — more plausible for the United States than they appear right now.
It is too early to say whether this new approach will work, or even whether Mr. Gates’s views will ultimately drive decisions in an administration where President Bush himself has rarely shown interest in that sort of strategic thinking.
But there is no mistaking the course change at the Pentagon.
Already there are signs, some large and some small, that Mr. Gates would like to discard assumptions that have dictated how the Bush administration has fought in Iraq.
The most far-reaching of those has been the idea, promoted by his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, that the American military should be deployed with the fewest number of forces necessary to do the job.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping
One way to take that quote is that once you memorize the music, you no longer need the music books-- you just needs the instruments.
I think the verses of diplomacy are getting pretty repetitive. I dont think we need the music books anymore-- were familiar with what the Iranians will say. Let's watch em dance now.
If Gates knows his Frederick the Great (more than a single quotation) he was a good pick. Let's also hope he knows his Clausewitz, Sun Tzu and Machiavelli.
Actually I take that back, they don't believe that less force gives us leverage. They simply don't want us to have leverage.
Notice the negative tone used by the author regarding the surpising "hawkishness" of Gates....and yet, the author STILL has to imply that GATES is the one with plans that Pres. Bush would NEVER have thought of....LOL
Starts out as a hit piece on Gates' hawkish bent...and still has to dig at Bush..
PING
Leverage is evil. Weakness is strength.
We had posters here who said that Gates wasn't up to the job.
bump -- always the dig at POTUS.
Miss ya, Rummy.
What, you mean that announcing that the military option is off the table before negotiations is NOT the way to gain strategic advantage? Herr Schroeder and Monsieur Chirac are wrong? How can this be?
I know...I don't discount anything Rummy did....but we know that the NYTimes isn't going to say anything nice about him.
If he still has an office at DOD and has security clearance..we may never know what he is still doing.
So what? The NYTimes is on record as being for cut-n-run.
I think I remember just after his leaving was announced that W was going to continue to have him as consultant. And, I really can't imagine that they wouldn't be in regular communication after all they know and have been through together.
Negotiations - arms
Carrot - stick
Names may change but the reality stays the same.
One imagines the flamboyant fellows at the NYT assuming postures of histronic dismay at this obvious truism.
Gates is a hawk?? Only when viewed by the parakeets and parrots at the NY Times.... (no offense meant to lovers of those birds).
Why does this photo make me think of the typical NY Times editor? All red and yellow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Parrot.red.macaw.1.arp.750pix.jpg
I remember the day I realized the new SecDef wasn't the weak James Baker - type person that he was billed as. It was such a relief.
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