Can Gates Turn It Around?

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates talks to members of the press in Kabul after touring forward operating bases in Afghanistan during a trip to southwest Asia on May 7, 2009. DoD photo by Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

From Newsweek:

A look at the defense secretary's new commander in Afghanistan, and his strategy for success.

Robert Gates's title is secretary of defense, but he sees his job as secretary of war. That's the key to understanding why Gates has summarily axed Gen. David McKiernan as U.S. commander in Afghanistan. It also explains why Gates has chosen a Black Ops wiz, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to replace him.

Gates came into the Pentagon to win a war. President Bush had been persuaded—largely by his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley—that the U.S. was losing the struggle in Iraq: wholesale change at the Pentagon was needed to turn things around. In short order, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; the commander of Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid; and the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, were removed. Gates, summoned to the Pentagon in the last days of 2006, completed the sweep by retiring the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace. (Bush has never gotten due credit for the sheer nerve of this unprecedented purge.)

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My Comment: While Secretary Robert Gates is an important man in the Department of Defense .... he is just one of many men and women who are now serving. To win in Afghanistan will be dependent on many .... and in the end .... it will stop at the President's desk .... where success or failure must always stop.