The former defense secretary of Barack Obama, Robert Gates, chastised President Biden for his wrong foreign policy decisions. This includes not only during his presidency, but also in the last four decades.
Biden Made a Big Mistake in Handling the Afghan Crisis
During an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the former secretary evinced Biden is a “lot wrong” in his policy measures. He said the incumbent president opposed Ronald Reagan’s every military program in the past, which he tried to bring to counter the rising Soviet Union in the Cold War.
Gates pointed out that Biden committed a severe mistake in handling the Afghan withdrawal. Likewise, he said seeing the hasty withdrawal (and the chaos which followed in Afghanistan) was hard to watch for him.
“I've worked for eight presidents… I've never encountered a single one of them who ever said, ‘Well, I really blew that one,’” says former defense secretary Robert Gates. He says he thinks it would make presidents more credible if they admitted mistakes. https://t.co/iHUqgfwmoo pic.twitter.com/NKDz6JtfNW
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 18, 2021
The former secretary suggested instead of rushing for withdrawal immediately in the last days, the administration should have started pulling out troops and the people exactly after announcing the withdrawal date.
He said not anticipating the chaos in Afghanistan in advance was the faulty approach from the Biden administration. Gates has criticized Biden and his former boss Obama before this as well.
While writing a memoir in 2010, he scolded Obama, saying he does not own the war and never believed in his own strategy of handling the crisis.
Poor US Withdrawal Made Gates Sick for Days
Robert Gates is one of the few people who have firm command over the US strategic interests, owing to his experience of working in the CIA for three decades.
In addition to this, Gates is the first person in the history of the United States who served presidents from two different parties as a top defense worker.
Currently living in Washington State, the former Defense Secretary stated he moved there to go as far away as possible from DC. Gates claimed he did not feel well and stayed low for a while after hearing about the failed US exit from Afghanistan and chaos in the country.
Robert Gates tells @60Minutes that watching the Afghanistan withdrawal sickened him https://t.co/lJcBE9oueG
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 14, 2021
Likewise, Gates claimed the subsequent US administrations failed to train the Afghan military forces. This claim also exposes Biden’s lies; Biden said the Afghan forces were adequately trained to counter the Taliban.
The former Secretary of Defense is also skeptical over Biden’s remarks the US will continue targeting terrorist installations through drone attacks in Afghanistan. He said conducting counter-terrorism operations by not having on-ground forces is very hard for the US.
Gates said without on-ground forces, the administration ends up hitting civilians instead of terrorists, as the US drone strike did recently. Recalling his experience of working with Biden during Obama’s tenure, Gates stated he had significant differences with then-Vice President Biden over the Afghan issue.
Biden defends his withdrawal, saying when he heard the US should have continued its war in Afghanistan, he could not understand people who asked this much from the US soldiers.
Robert Gates also emphasized for Biden to increase the US military presence in Asia to deter China, regarding the China-Taiwan issue.
