Robert Gates: “Allies are a huge asset and in not understanding that I think is a real problem.”

Development is a lot cheaper than sending soldiers.

I think it would be a very heavy political lift for the president to say he's going to cut off military supplies to Israel unless they stop in Gaza.

I think the president is — based on what I read — is getting the sense that, as he put it, that Putin is 'tapping' him along.

This is a Department that principally plans for war. It is not organized to wage war, and that is what I am trying to fix.