The Rag Blog: We've Been Saying This For Weeks

16 December 2006

We've Been Saying This For Weeks

Bush’s new defense secretary: Veteran of U.S. war crimes past
By Alan Mass
December 15, 2006

THE PRESIDENT wanted to continue his crusade despite all opposition. And Robert Gates helped make sure it happened.

Under Ronald Reagan, that meant manipulating CIA intelligence to make the former USSR and its “evil empire” seem like a growing threat--and organizing the covert war against the people of Nicaragua.

Now Gates has a chance to serve another president bent on war--as George W. Bush’s new defense secretary.

Republicans and Democrats alike seem certain that Gates will clip the wings of the White House’s neoconservative hawks and engineer a “change of course” in Bush’s disastrous war on Iraq. Gates got the kid gloves’ treatment in questioning by the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the vote of the full Senate to confirm him was a lopsided 95 to 2.

But no one should think this veteran liar and right-wing warrior has become a compassionate peacenik. His priority will remain what it has been his whole political life--to defend and extend U.S. power around the globe, regardless of the human cost.

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