Showing posts with label Robert Gates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Gates. Show all posts
Monday, March 10, 2014
Robert Gates on Ukraine Crisis, 'Reset' with Russia
Thursday, January 16, 2014
UK Not 'Full Partner' with US, Says Former Defence Chief
Defence cuts are limiting Britain’s capacity to be “full partner” with America, a former US defence secretary has said.
Robert Gates, who served under George W Bush and Barack Obama, said the “fairly substantial reductions” in spending mean Britain can no longer stand alongside the US as a leading military player.
For decades British Armed Forces have had a so-called “special relationship” with their counterparts across the Atlantic - particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan recently - but Mr Gates’s comments indicate that partnership could be over.
He said America had always been able to “count on” Britain to stand shoulder to shoulder with them militarily, but reductions in spending mean UK forces can no longer offer a “full spectrum” of capabilities on land, in the air, and particularly at sea.
The Army is currently going through sweeping cuts as part of Coalition cost-cutting which will see the loss of 20,000 regulars by 2020, while there are further reductions in spending for the Royal Navy and RAF.
Mr Gates told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: "With the fairly substantial reductions in defence spending in Great Britain, what we're finding is that it won't have full spectrum capabilities and the ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past."
The former US defence chief singled out naval cuts as particularly damaging, noting that for the first time since the First World War Britain does not have an operational aircraft carrier. » | James Edgar | Thursday, January 16, 2914
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
VOICE OF AMERICA: Officials say talks with Saudi ruler to focus on political change across the region, progress on $60 billion arms deal, missile defense[.]
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Saudi Arabia to meet King Abdullah for talks on the recent spate of political unrest sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. » | VOA News | Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Washington’s U-turn is as swift as the reversal in Col Gaddafi’s fortunes.
Eighteen days ago, it seemed that the colonel’s 42-year rule in Libya was close to collapse. When David Cameron then suggested a no-fly zone, it was to protect the Libyan people from a last, vengeful exercise of force. The full weight of the American military establishment dismissed the idea as premature.
Then, suddenly, the White House came down on the side of even tougher action than Mr Cameron proposed. But the Libyan army’s swift advance on Benghazi means that the strategic purpose of a no-fly zone has changed dramatically. Even if Benghazi holds out longer than the other towns of the northern coast, the West and its allies will be coming to the aid of an enclave, not a population.
The ultimate purpose must be to drive Col Gaddafi out of power. » | Richard Spencer, Tripoli | Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
REUTERS DEUTSCHLAND: Kabul - US-Verteidigungsminister Robert Gates hat die irrtümliche Tötung von neun Kindern bei einem Nato-Luftangriff in Afghanistan als schweren Rückschlag für die beiderseitigen Beziehungen bezeichnet. >>> | Dienstag, 08. März 2011
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
THE TIMES: General Stanley McChrystal’s job as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan was hanging by a thread after he was recalled to Washington today for mocking senior figures in the Obama Administration.
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, described General McChrystal’s outburst as a “significant mistake”, while the White House said that the President was “angry”, and a top Democrat in Congress called for the General’s removal.
In an explosive magazine profile, General McChrystal is quoted mocking Vice President Joe Biden, ridiculing Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to the region and saying he felt “betrayed” by his closest civilian colleague in Afghanistan, the US ambassador Karl Eikenberry.
Senior aides to General McChrystal also told Rolling Stone magazine that the general was “disappointed” by his first meeting with the President, calling it “a ten-minute photo op” with a Commander-in-Chief who “clearly didn’t know anything about him”. One aide also described the President’s National Security Advisor, General Jim Jones, as a “clown” stuck in “1985”.
Aides said the general had prevailed in the titanic battles over US policy in Afghanistan only “by keeping his eye on the real enemy — the wimps in the White House”. Read on and comment >>> Giles Whittell and Jerome Starkey | Tuesday, June 22, 2010
POLITICO: Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s MacArthur Moment was more than an embarrassment for the White House – it was a reminder of just how badly Barack Obama’s “good war” in Afghanistan is going.
The challenge facing Obama in responding to his loose-lipped Afghan commander has an obvious parallel in Harry Truman’s firing of Douglas MacArthur at the height of the Korean War.
But it may actually be more comparable to a more chronic presidential leadership crisis — Abraham Lincoln’s dilemma during the Civil War, when vacillating public opinion, insubordination and strategic uncertainties forced Lincoln to repeatedly reshuffle his general staff.
“Afghanistan is a mess and it’s getting worse. To make matters worse, the president’s been dealing with internal squabbling on this for some time,” says Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan Washington think-tank, who has written extensively on Afghanistan. >>> Glenn Thrush | Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Related article here
Monday, May 10, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, has said military spending must be cut by up to $15 billion a year and that the US cannot afford to enter into another Afghanistan or Iraq.
Mr Gates said that America would be forced to take tight budgets into consideration before launching any military action against Iran.
His plans would see cuts in spending on its bureaucracy and on equipment designed for a repeat of the Second World War rather than the smaller wars of the 21st century.
However, he said he would protect the military's ability to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said that defence spending had doubled since the September 11, 2001 attacks, and that the severe recession guaranteed that "the gusher has been turned off and will stay off for a good period of time". >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Sunday, May 09, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
TIMES ONLINE: The Pentagon was ratcheting up pressure for military action against Iran last night as America’s top uniformed official said for the first time that a strike on nuclear targets would “go a long way” towards delaying Tehran’s uranium enrichment programme.
The remarks by Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were his strongest yet in support of a strategy that both the Pentagon and the Obama Administration still regard as a last resort and possibly a recipe for a regional war.
They came as President Ahmadinejad taunted the US with a potent display of missile technology, while a leaked top-secret memo by Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, forced the White House to insist that it was preparing for all contingencies.
Mr Ahmadinejad used Iran’s annual army day parade to show off missiles capable of hitting US and Israeli targets throughout the Middle East and to demand a US military withdrawal from the region. As he did so, two senior White House officials issued strong responses to the disclosure that Mr Gates had written a classified assessment of weaknesses in the Administration’s plans for what to do if Iran failed to halt its nuclear weapons programme.
The war of words in Washington may reflect a power struggle between an Administration still committed to a diplomatic approach to Iran and an increasingly impatient Pentagon.
Speaking at Columbia University, Admiral Mullen said last night of the Iranian nuclear programme: “Military options would go a long way to delaying it. That’s not my call. That’s going to be the President’s call. But from my perspective . . . the last option is to strike right now.”
According to one report the Pentagon is moving hundreds of bunker-buster bombs to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The latest version of the weapon, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, is said to weigh 15 tonnes and be capable of burrowing through 200ft of reinforced concrete before exploding.
In a warning to anyone planning a strike on Iranian nuclear targets, Mr Ahmadinejad told Iranians in a televised speech that their country was so strong “that no enemy will harbour evil thoughts about laying its hands on Iranian territory”. He said of US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf: “They have to leave our region. This is not a request. It is an order from the nations of the region.” Read on and comment >>> Giles Whittell, Washington | Monday, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
THE HEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.
Several officials said the highly classified analysis, written in January to President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, came in the midst of an intensifying effort inside the Pentagon, the White House and the intelligence agencies to develop new options for Mr. Obama. They include a set of military alternatives, still under development, to be considered should diplomacy and sanctions fail to force Iran to change course.
Officials familiar with the memo’s contents would describe only portions dealing with strategy and policy, and not sections that apparently dealt with secret operations against Iran, or how to deal with Persian Gulf allies.
One senior official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the memo, described the document as “a wake-up call.” But White House officials dispute that view, insisting that for 15 months they had been conducting detailed planning for many possible outcomes regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
In an interview on Friday, General Jones declined to speak about the memorandum. But he said: “On Iran, we are doing what we said we were going to do. The fact that we don’t announce publicly our entire strategy for the world to see doesn’t mean we don’t have a strategy that anticipates the full range of contingencies — we do.” >>> David E. Sanger and Tom Shanker | Saturday, April 17, 2010
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: WASHINGTON: Three years ago, the Republican senator John McCain was pretty clear about his stand on the military's ''Don't ask, don't tell'' policy on gay service personnel.
The war hero said he would support ending the ban once the top brass told him they were OK with it.
''The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to,'' he told an audience of college students.
That day arrived on Tuesday, with the US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, testifying to senators following President Barack Obama's announcement that he would seek a congressional repeal of the 15-year-old policy.
Admiral Mullen called repealing the policy, which bans openly gay men and lesbians from serving, ''the right thing to do'' and said he was troubled by in effect forcing service members to ''lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens''.
Mr Gates told the armed services committee: ''I fully support the President's decision.'' >>> The Washington Post, Agence France-Presse | Thursday, February 04, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The US is to abandon its doctrine of always being ready to fight two simultaneous conventional wars.
Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said instead the Pentagon will shift its focus to a broader range of challenges including terrorism and cyber-security.
In a sweeping review of US military strategy, he said the Pentagon must prepare for an "uncertain security landscape" where extremists or "non-state actors" sought missile technology or weapons of mass destruction.
Warning that US military power faced new limits and constraints, he said that weaponry, tactics and enemies had overtaken the "familiar contingencies that dominated US planning after the Cold War".
"We have learned through painful experience that the wars we fight are seldom the wars that we planned," said Mr Gates, as he presented the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defence Review and the 2011 budget plan to the Senate armed services committee.
"As a result, the United States needs a broad portfolio of military capabilities, with maximum versatility, across the widest possible spectrum of conflict." >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Friday, June 19, 2009
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is moving ground-to-air missile defenses to Hawaii as tensions escalate between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's recent moves to restart its nuclear-weapon program and resume test-firing long-range missiles.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that the U.S. is concerned that Pyongyang might soon fire a missile toward Hawaii. Some senior U.S. officials expect a North Korean test by midsummer, even though most don't believe the missile would be capable of crossing the Pacific and reaching Hawaii.
Mr. Gates told reporters that the U.S. is positioning a sophisticated floating radar array in the ocean around Hawaii to track an incoming missile. The U.S. is also deploying missile-defense weapons to Hawaii that would theoretically be capable of shooting down a North Korean missile, should such an order be given, he said.
"We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile...in the direction of Hawaii," Mr. Gates said. "We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect American territory." >>> By Yochi J. Dreazen | Friday, June 19, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, delivered a stark warning to North Korea on Saturday, declaring that America would not "stand idly by" while the regime threatened to "wreak destruction" with nuclear weapons.
Instead, Mr Gates urged "tough sanctions" against North Korea and pledged that Washington would not accept its possession of a nuclear arsenal. Kim Jong-il's regime was, he said, starving its own people in order to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Gates's unequivocal message came during a conference of Asian defence ministers in Singapore. In his audience were representatives of the countries most threatened by Mr Kim – South Korea and Japan – and a delegation from China, North Korea's only ally.
"Dependent on the charity of the international community to alleviate the hunger and suffering of its people, North Korea's leadership has chosen to focus the North's limited energies and resources on a reckless and ultimately self-destructive quest for nuclear weapons," said Mr Gates.
"The policy of the United States has not changed: our goal is complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, and we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state." >>> By David Blair in Singapore | Saturday, May 300, 2009
Sunday, March 01, 2009
L’EXPRESS.fr: WASHINGTON - L'Iran n'est "pas près d'avoir une arme" nucléaire, a déclaré le secrétaire américain à la Défense Robert Gates, dans un entretien diffusé dimanche sur la chaîne NBC.
"Je pense qu'on s'est concentré de manière continue sur la manière d'amener les Iraniens à renoncer à un programme d'armement nucléaire. Ils ne sont pas près d'avoir des réserves (suffisantes). Ils ne sont pas près d'avoir une arme à ce stade", a déclaré le ministre dans cet entretien pré-enregistré. "Donc, nous avons du temps", a-t-il ajouté.
Il a estimé que la diplomatie avait de bonnes chances de succès maintenant que les prix du pétrole avaient baissé, renforçant l'efficacité des sanctions économiques contre Téhéran qui reposent essentiellement sur le revenu pétrolier. >>> AFP | Dimanche 01 Mars 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Broché) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Relié) >>>
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