Robert Gates: “We are not in the business of nation building. What we are trying to do is build the Afghan National Security Forces to…”

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.

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.

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.

There has to be an agreement between the president and the Congress on actually what has to be done to recapture our industrial-military industrial capabilities.