Robert Gates: “I have felt, ever since I got this job, that we have been too focused on the central government in Kabul.”

My concern is, we don't have an overriding strategy on the part of the United States in this complex challenge over the next 20 to 30 years.

He wants Ukraine, basically, to be a client state of Russia.

He would be candid and honest, willing to tell the President straight from the shoulder what he needs to hear.

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.