Gates believes Obama made the right decision on the Afghanistan drawdown, and still believes America鈥檚 goals there are 鈥渨ithin reach.鈥�
He first admits that while 鈥淧resident Bush always detested the notion,鈥� the war in Afghanistan was, 鈥淚 believe, significantly compounded by the invasion of Iraq.鈥� That鈥檚 because 鈥渞esources and senior-level attention were [Gates鈥� italics] diverted from Afghanistan.鈥�
There was another problem, too: For years, US goals in Afghanistan 鈥渨ere embarrassingly ambitious and historically naive compared with the meager human and financial resources committed to the task,鈥� Gates argues.
These 鈥渆mbarrassingly ambitious鈥� goals included 鈥渁 properly-sized, competent Afghan national army and police, [and] a working democracy with at least a minimally effective and less corrupt central government.鈥�
But prior to 2009, 鈥渢he meager human and financial resources committed to the task鈥� made these goals nearly impossible to accomplish, Gates writes.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I continue to believe that the troop increase that Obama boldly approved in late 2009 was the right decision 鈥� providing sufficient forces to break the stalemate on the ground, rooting the Taliban out of their strongholds while training a much larger and more capable Afghan army.鈥�
In order to do this, Gates notes, Obama 鈥渙verruled the policy and domestic political concerns of his vice president and virtually all the senior White House staff.鈥�
