[luckystarmom]

I have friends from A&M that know and really like Gates, one just reired as a colonel in the reserves.

Not sure what to make about him..

[binreadin]

I don't doubt that he is a pleasant, considerate, kind man. However, he was the head of the military that was under attack from both within the country and without. The military needed a real leader with backbone and the courage to say, at the time it needed to be said, that the lives of our young men and women were on the line and that political posturing was not acceptable. It needed to be said loud, and hard, and rudely, and it needed to be said to every paper and radio station, every television station and through every pulpit in this country. Instead we got a bureaucrat without the courage to stand up for what was right. Gates could have retired long before then.

[elpadre]

I think he was out of place in politics - regardless of what others on this site say, I believe, basically, it is an honest book.