Robert Gates: “the July 2011 date was chosen because it will be 2 years after the Marines arrived in Helmand.”

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 think part of the problem is that at the end of the Cold War, we were affected by triumphalism or hubris, whatever you want to call it.

No more continuing resolutions.

I think it doesn't make strategic sense.