Robert Gates: “The Department has developed a Comprehensive Master Plan for the NCR, which provides a roadmap to continue improving the…”

I soon learned that the only way I could get significant new or additional equipment to commanders in the field in weeks or months, not years, was to take control of the problem myself through special task forces and ad hoc processes.

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.

My staff and I have learned that it was nearly impossible to get accurate information and answers to questions such as, 'How much money did you spend?' and, 'How many people do you have?'

the real problem with United States policy in the Middle East is the lack of a clear strategy.