I'm a big advocate of drones. Robert M. Gates More Quotes by Robert M. Gates More Quotes From Robert M. Gates One of the big changes in the Congress since I first came to Washington is that all of these folks go home every weekend. They used to play golf together; their families got to know each other, go to dinner at each other's homes at weekends - and these would be people who were political adversaries. Robert M. Gates weekend home golf I've spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. And it didn't have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. Robert M. Gates adults strong looks I've seen, all too often in my career, people coming in to lead agencies and organizations and trying to impose change from the top down. Never works. You never have enough time. Robert M. Gates top-down careers organization Things have gotten so nasty in Washington. Robert M. Gates nasty There's a lot of books out there about how you lead change in business, but I've certainly not seen any... on how you do that in public institutions. Robert M. Gates institutions book The United States has been a global power since late in the 19th century. Robert M. Gates late united-states century Even when I was at CIA, I'd go to visit foreign leaders and I'd say, 'You know, I'm not a diplomat. I'm just an old CIA guy'... I said, 'If I wanted to be diplomatic, I'd have been a diplomat.' Robert M. Gates diplomats guy leader I mean, when you get down to very low numbers of nuclear weapons, and you contemplate going to zero, how do you deal with the reality of that technology being available to almost any country that seeks to pursue it? And what conditions do you put in place? Robert M. Gates zero mean country I have always voted for who I believed was the best person. Robert M. Gates best-person persons I have always that there ought to be some kind of mandatory national service, not necessarily in the military but to show everybody that freedom isn't free, that everybody has an obligation to the nation as a community. Robert M. Gates nation service freedom community I had no concerns - I had no reason to have concerns based on what was available to me about North's contacts with the private sector people, but I didn't think a CIA person should do it. Robert M. Gates person think me people If Poindexter made a comment to me like that, it would have been in the context of once the authorized program is approved there would be no point in having any of these private benefactors any longer. Robert M. Gates point like me made
