Robert Gates' Memoir

choi

(1) Jack Keane, The Mask of Command; Gates feared Congress might again legislate defeat, restricting funding for the surge and forcing an abrupt termination of the war. Wall Street Journal, Jan 14, 2014
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303848104579312473503944020
(book review on Robert M Gates, Duty; Memoir of a secretary at war. Knopf, 2014)

Quote: "How can the president order young men and women into a fight in which he doesn't believe? That is one of many questions that ring in the ear after reading 'Duty.'"

Note:
(a) The review title comes directly from a book title.

John Keegan, The Mask of Command; Alexander the Great, Wellington, Ulysses S Grant, Hitler, and the nature of leadership, Penguin, 1988
dealt with leadership.
(b) "Mr Gates took up his position on Dec 18, 2006, when the US was losing in Iraq and, although few understood it at the time, was soon to face a similar challenge in Afghanistan."

His predecessor was Donald Rumsfeld.
(c) This is a rare voice from a military man, who ordinarily is barred from speaking up. But the reviewer is retired.

choi

(2) Robert M Gates, The Wars of Robert Gates; As his new administration battled over Afghanistan, Obama was caught between generals’ push for more troops and his advisers’ political worries. Wall Street Journal, Jan 11, 2014.
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303848104579310772780856370

Excerpt in the window of print: Obama was aware of politics. Biden was driven by them.

Quote: "The president announced the [Afghan] troop surge at West Point on Dec 1[, 2009]. In the end, this major national security debate had been driven more by the White House staff and domestic politics than any other in my entire experience. The president's political operatives wanted to make sure that everyone knew the Pentagon wouldn't get its way. Obama, however, made the tough decision to go forward with the Afghan surge—a decision that was contrary to the advice of all his political advisers and almost certainly the least politically popular of his options.
My comment:
(a) All events described in this essay that happened in the Obama administration transpired in 2009.
(b) "Many influential appointees below the top level, especially in the White House, had been undergraduates—or even in high school—when I had been CIA director. No wonder my nickname in the White House soon was Yoda, the ancient Jedi teacher in 'Star Wars.'"

Yoda
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoda
(c) "suspicion in the White House that Obama was getting the 'bum's rush' from senior military officers"

bum's rush (n; The phrase dates back to 1910 (US)):
"(chiefly North America, slang, idiomatic) Forcible ejection from an establishment, as of a bum (hobo)")
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bum's_rush
(d) "We needed to do the review before I approached the president about any more forces; I couldn't nickel-and-dime him to death."

nickle and dime (v)
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nickel_and_dime
(e) "To my astonishment and dismay, the president reacted angrily. Why do you need more enablers? he asked. Were they not anticipated as part of the 21,000? Is this mission creep?"

creep (n): "a slow but persistent increase or elevation <this political inertia … makes budget creep inevitable — Wall Street Journal>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/creep
(f) On this account I have great sympathy for President Obama. Many Democrats thoughts the two wars were George W Bush's, not America's. Many young Americans just wanted to pull out of the wars, lest more Americans would die, in a lost cause. Not realizing it at first, I was confused and inquired a few Americans around me, "Isn't the prestige of United States at stake?" They disagreed. President Obama was in a difficult position for sure. (And perhaps deep down he has not believed in the wars but can not say so openly. In the 2008 presidential campaign, two weaknesses of his were lack of experiences in military and diplomacy.) Separately, When Syrian government used chemical weapons to kill civilians, Pres Obama announced a missile strike, but Americans did not want even the very limited reaction.