WASHINGTON – Former Defense Sec. Robert Gates–who bashed Chicago figures in the Obama White House in his new book, “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War,”– hits Chicago Tuesday to speak at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
In my Jan. 8 column I wrote, “In his new book, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is critical of what he asserted was the role that President Barack Obama’s key staffers — Rahm Emanuel, then Bill Daley, David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett — had in making national security decisions.
“…Writes Gates: “With Obama, however, I joined a new, inexperienced president determined to change course — and equally determined from day one to win re-election. Domestic political considerations would therefore be a factor, though I believe never a decisive one, in virtually every major national security problem we tackled.
“The White House staff — including Chiefs of Staff Rahm Emanuel and then Bill Daley as well as such core political advisers as Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs — would have a role in national security decision making that I had not previously experienced (but which, I’m sure, had precedents).”
From the Council: “Gates will lead a candid discussion of his service, including: navigating Congress, Presidents Bush and Obama, Iraq and Afghanistan, debates around “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” WikiLeaks, and the future of US defense policy.”
