I wish I could set deadlines for the Congress, but that's just not the way the Constitution is written. Robert M. Gates More Quotes by Robert M. Gates More Quotes From Robert M. Gates I think that - that the disruptive nature, the tough talk on North Korea, the military deployments, sending the missile defense system to South Korea, I think these are all good things to have done. Robert M. Gates deployment military thinking I think it's kind of a stretch. You know, it's one thing if somebody working for the U.S. government has sold secrets to the other side, it's another if they have something in their personal life that they're hiding for which they could be blackmailed. Having evidence that they didn't tell the truth to somebody in the same building where they work, maybe it's just the old intel guy, is - it's a problem. Robert M. Gates guy secret thinking It's a very broad and not very well-disguised effort of Russians to create questions about the legitimacy of these Western elections. And, I think, this is very K.G.B. Robert M. Gates election effort thinking I think that Vladimir Putin has decided, in a very strategic way, to turn the tables and do everything in his power to, as we've described Russian elections as illegitimate, to try and communicate to the rest of the world that Western elections are illegitimate. And it's not just us, we know that now. It's Germany, it's France, it's a number of other countries. Robert M. Gates trying country thinking Soviet foreign ministers would come in to see the president all the time, routinely. Jimmy Carter stopped that after the invasion of Afghanistan. Ronald Reagan resumed it in 1984, I think. And so the fact of a meeting like that I think is not that big a deal. Robert M. Gates afghanistan president thinking My last visit to China as secretary, January of 2011, I told President Hu Jintao, just like this, "President of the United States wanted me to tell you that we now consider North Korea a direct threat to the United States." And it had no effect whatsoever. Robert M. Gates january threat president I think that Vladimir Putin is certainly getting a lot of publicity for what the Russians are doing. And I'm not sure that's unwelcome to him. I think this is a guy who saw the U.S. basically come out against him in his reelection campaign in 2012. He saw the U.S. being behind all of the color revolutions in Eastern Europe and in Georgia and Ukraine and so on. So his view is the West has been interfering in his politics for years. Robert M. Gates revolution guy thinking I think that Iran with a nuclear weapon is extremely destabilizing. I think it could precipitate a nuclear arms race in the region. Robert M. Gates iran race thinking I read in the press, and therefore it must be true, that no secretary of defense had ever been quoted as arguing for a bigger budget for State. Robert M. Gates defense states arguing I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States' essentially unilaterally disarming. Robert M. Gates hard-times war long I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. Robert M. Gates administration defense moving Every time we have come to the end of a conflict, somehow we have persuaded ourselves that the nature of mankind and the nature of the world have changed on an enduring basis and so we have dismantle our military and intelligence capabilities. My hope is that as we wind down in Iraq and whatever the level of our commitment in Afghanistan, that we not forget the basic nature of humankind has not changed. Robert M. Gates iraq military commitment I don't think any president that I worked with has ever said 'pretty please. Robert M. Gates president said thinking Defense is not like other discretionary spending. Robert M. Gates spending defense If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience. Robert M. Gates military successful thinking Power... Military success is not sufficient to win: economic development, institution-building and the rule of law, promoting internal reconciliation, good governance, providing basic services to the people, training and equipping indigenous military and police forces, strategic communications, and more of these, along with security, are essential ingredients for long-term success. Robert M. Gates communication military peace Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel. Robert M. Gates nuclear israel thinking No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on. Robert M. Gates singing president thinking When I was the director of Central Intelligence in the early '90s, I tried to get the Air Force to partner with us in building drones. And they didn't want to, because they had no pilots. Robert M. Gates drones air directors Well, what I've said is that the war in Iraq will always be clouded by how it began, which was a wrong premise, that there were in fact no weapons of nuclear - weapons of mass destruction. Robert M. Gates mass-destruction iraq war
