Quote of the Day

During a meeting with members of the House Armed Services Committee yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confessed to the panel that he was "no expert on Iraq", going as far as to say that he was "no expert on military matters" in general.

Hmmm... something about that confession seems really puzzling to me. The guy has 26 years of experience in intelligence, with both the CIA and National Security Council. He's been a pretty high ranking official for quite some time. Yet, during all of those years, he never picked up a smidge of military expertice, let alone a much better grasp on the situation in Iraq than what's held by the American public. Wouldn't it have been a better move by Dubya, considering the current state of affairs in Iraq and the rest of the world, to tap a real expert on all things Iraqi or even all thing military to lead the D.O.D? I'm not doubting Gates' experience, but one would think that if the president was serious about winning the war, if "winning" is even a legitimate option anymore, that he would've gone the way of someone with a little more military intelligence.

Or maybe, just maybe, you'd think that Bush would've pressured his nominee to beef up his knowledge of Iraq before allowing him to take over at the Pentagon. Oh wait, that's right, Gates had that chance when he was a member of the James Baker's Iraq Study Group. I guess that several month long crash course didn't really do much.