New Book: "Duty" by Robert M. Gates.

Media Photo

There are lots of books that have been published about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, including those by Robert Woodward, Donald Rumsfeld, and company, etc., though this one appears to be the most devoted to actually illustrating the details of the time, and not the strictly autobiographical take on the times of those conflicts to date some of the texts have.  Robert Gates, as a kind of unsung personality from the State of Texas, and from academia, who has held various underrated posts in government under six presidents, and who might rival people like Clark Clifford and other major personalities in how he has helped the various parties in leading the country in recent history, has written here an exemplary text mostly about what it is to be responsible executive - wise during times of war and other conflict.  In the modern, sterilized - type of view that many have of armed conflict and in principle with respect to the 'cut and try' and 'simple' approach to the recent wars, Mr. Gates portrays the complexities and intricacies of these and this with the overall influences of public finances and the crises of 2007 - 2008, including the overall lessening of the U.S. war effort as an indirect result of the financial crises of the time.  The issues here as presented are heart - rending and Mr. Gates at the executive level is highly partial and sympathetic even to the vagaries of the common soldier and service person not just in the battle phalanx, but in supply and and back office as well.

Evident from any reading of this text is the overall pessimism and downbeat criticisms of the war and the effects it had on the offices of government executives conducting the war at the time, including the generally dismal reports of late that have been offered by military staff due to lack of support from the public and financial and other support in their various departments.  The battle ventures of the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered from popular criticism and political backbiting, and other angles as being Napoleonic in nature, and this text includes many arguments that refute this characterization that is made from a comic - book - type of view on things like cultural traditions in the Middle East and modern world society and the importance of the Middle East in this and the conduct of military affairs there.  The book discusses the threats of Al - Q'aeda and other groups such as Hamas as well, including a related military history as detailed starting in the Bush Administration's response to 9 / 11, and even the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 as it was in the Clinton administration years.  The text also reviews the military approach to the capture of Sadaam Hussein, the pursuit of Al - Q'aeda people and the responsible pursuit of these individuals and related matters, including the overall reservedness and reluctance of the military to use greatly destructive anti - personnel methods in prosecuting the wars.  With this tone in mind in reading any such text, and any writing by Robert Gates about Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts and the U.S. military responses to them, the difficult politicking of the time in both countries that really had been done on a shoestring, the high - minded dedication of U.S. personnel from every government department and policy or project under Mr. Gates, the author portrays the conflicts and ancillary military strikes and activities as completely and persuasively necessary.  The writing in its entirety transcends the traditional approach to administration and the military of one based upon relationships and foreign policy ties of the same nature, and is new in its approach to having considered the importance of the sovereignty and role, and political impact of nationalism and its derivative influences in the Middle East and related developments that caused deliberate U.S. actions there and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The paradoxes and ironies of this and other political and military imperatives of the day chewed up lesser people than Mr. Gates and there is a laundry list of them:  All of whom did their supreme best and who performed as commanded to do - all extremely commendable people who are to be rewarded for their meritorious actions and herculean efforts in reply to the calling to battle and other obligations of their profession of service to country, the U.S. and America, in view of the torn and distorted fabric of the world of the Middle East that has been the story of this place for a long time.  Mr. Gates took on all this after being called to office again by president Bush in the mid - 2000's as a person who could take the office of the Secretary of Defense and related executive offices and turn them again into the dynamic, resilient, formidable, and resoundingly and administratively useful offices they needed to be.  Little light is shed upon the seeming deficiencies of Mr. Gates official predecessors, and judgment as to this either way is substantively left to the reader of this writing.  Mr. Gates had been comfortably, again, accumulating experience in the field of academia at the time of his additional calling to office by the president, and had been selected probably then due to his own self - governing insight, among other greatly ignored values and merits, that the greatest "doves" in America anywhere on the globe are those in uniform of the U.S. armed forces.

Given this axiomatic and very sophisticated, and then formalized view through his office, and again on

Media Photo

a shoestring, the war effort methodically gained efficacy and effectiveness due to Gates' using the best personnel, including the input and views, good counsel and persuasive actions and examples of people like Condoleezza Rice, Richard Cheney, Michael Mullin, N.A.T.O. people, and so on.  All this carried on, in fact, though not greatly evident, despite there being a paucity of rewards for the administrative, political and other principals involved.  The look of the flyleaf and the title as illustrated on the cover illustrate on the service the meaning patriotically of the efforts of all these people to facilitate and assure international security and the abatement of any terrorism as it emanates from the regions examined in the text.  Any reading of content as further illustrated in the pages, and page - by - page, word for word, this writing brings forward in captivating and scrupulous detail all the issues and related values in play in any looking into the content examined therein - and greatly dispels the concerns about the purposes of such subject matter or matters as they are portrayed.  Overall an outstanding read for anyone.

"New York Times" book review - click here.