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SPEAKERS: SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT M. GATES

KATIE COURIC, CBS ANCHOR

[*] COURIC: He calls himself the secretary of war; Robert Gates, secretary of defense for both Presidents Bush and Obama, is the man in charge of winding down the war in Iraq and building up the war in Afghanistan.

We flew with him to Afghanistan just over a week ago. He went half way around the world to see the troops and to fire their commander, General David McKiernan. Gates wants General Stanley McChrystal, a counterinsurgency expert, to implement the new U.S. strategy, which includes adding 21,000 more American combat troops to secure the cities and villages and hold them until Afghan forces can grow and take over.

How long will it be before they even begin to take the lead in military operations? While we were in Kabul, Gates told us it will take at least two to four years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GATES: War is inherently unpredictable. OK. And the enemy always has a vote. But I think that would be our anticipation.

COURIC (on camera): Then U.S. troops will definitely be here at least through the end of President Obama’s current term? Is that accurate?

GATES: We’ll see. This is a war.

COURIC: At the same time, don’t you think that people in the United States deserve some kind of idea of how long this commitment will be?

GATES: I think what the people in the United States want to see is the momentum shifting to see that the strategies that we’re following are working. And that’s why I’ve said in nine months to a year, we need to evaluate how we’re doing.

COURIC: What would it take for U.S. troops to be out in four years? How could that even be possible?

GATES: You’re asking me to make up a fairy story. I mean, I don’t know ho -- I don’t know what it would take. What it would take is the Afghan army growing and doing its job well. It would take the effectiveness of our own strategy and our own forces. It would take bringing better governance to the country. It would take a lot of different things to have a finite time when we can say we’re out of here. And I don’t believe in those stories. I’ve been around too long.

COURIC (voiceover): When we landed in Kabul, Gates was met at the airport by General McKiernan, who he fired over dinner later that night. Gates said he wanted fresh eyes and fresh thinking to lead the war, a war that has been going badly. Roadside bomb attacks rose 33 percent last year, with U.S. and coalition deaths up more than 20 percent. U.S. troops have complained that they’re under-manned and under-equipped. Gates has made it his mission to change that.

We flew with him to three U.S. bases in southern Afghanistan. Our access was unprecedented. He usually avoids the spotlight and he’s so low-key that Bob Gates is hardly a household name. At Camp Leatherneck, he was even mis-introduced as Bill Gates.

(UNKNOWN): Mister Bill -- Mister Gates.

GATES: Bill Gates is the really rich one.

COURIC (voiceover): But whether they know his name, they do know that he’s gotten them stronger vehicles to survive roadside bombs, better body armor, and better battlefield intelligence. And he has cut by a third the time it takes to get a wounded soldier to a hospital.

GATES: We sent out 10 additional helicopters and three field hospitals. We hope we don’t need it for any of you but I want it to be there if it is needed.

COURIC: At the Pentagon, before our trip, Gates told us the troops in harm’s way are his top priority.

(on camera): You’ve signaled you want to change the culture at the Pentagon. What about the culture here needs changing?

GATES: I want a part of this building that comes to work every single day, asking themselves, “What can I do to help the soldier in the field today? What can I do to make them successful in the field and bring them home safely?”

COURIC (voiceover): But Gates said that instead of helping today’s soldiers battle insurgents too much of the Pentagon has been focused on future conventional wars.

GATES: I wanted a department that, frankly, could walk and chew gum at the same time, that could wage war as we are doing now, at the same time we plan and prepare for tomorrow’s wars.

COURIC: So his new budget cuts some billion-dollar futuristic weapon systems and instead provides more protection for troops on the battlefield. The U.S. will have 68,000 troops in Afghanistan when the surge is completed this fall. NATO will have less than half as many, which makes no sense to Gates because terrorist plots spawned here are aimed at Europe as well as the U.S.

GATES: Well, I’ve been disappointed with NATO’s response to this ever since I got this job. NATO as an alliance, if you exclude the United States, has almost 2 million men under arms. Why they can’t get more than 32,000 to Afghanistan has always been a puzzle to me.

COURIC (on camera): A puzzle, but it must be maddening as well.

GATES: Frustrating.

COURIC (voiceover): Gates has more experience in Afghanistan than anyone in the president’s inner circle. He was the number two man in the CIA back in the 1980s, sending weapons to the mujahedeen to help them drive out the Russians. Because of that experience he doesn’t want to add additional U.S. troops again next year. GATES: I was out here 20 years ago when we were fighting the Soviets. The Soviets had a 110,000 to a 120,000 troops in this country. They did not care about civilian casualties. And they lost. At some point in this country, the size of the foreign military footprint becomes a hindrance rather than a help because we begin to look like occupiers to the Afghans.

COURIC (on camera): Isn’t it ironic, though, that the very people the U.S. befriended and armed in the 1980s have morphed into our enemies. What lesson can be learned from that? Be careful who you cozy up to?

GATES: Or just that history is ironic.

COURIC (voiceover): The Taliban and Al Qaida have safe havens in Pakistan’s tribal areas in the mountains along the Afghan border. Gates told us it’s up to Pakistan to clear those terrorists out.

GATES: We want to try and persuade the Pakistanis of the importance of doing that.

COURIC (on camera): But the Pakistani army clearly has its hands full, right now fighting the Taliban much closer to its capital. So, what are you going to do about these safe havens?

GATES: We’ll just have to keep working with the Pakistanis. These problems aren’t going to be solved overnight.

COURIC: But the Pakistan army is still focused on conventional warfare against India. And there are more terrorists per square mile in Pakistan than any place in the world. Do you think that Pakistan’s army is capable of neutralizing the Taliban?

GATES: They can do this. They just need training and probably some different kinds of equipment.

COURIC: Since 2001, America has given Pakistan’s military more than a billion dollars a year. Still, parts of Pakistan’s intelligence service support the Taliban in Afghanistan.

GATES: Look, they’re maintaining contact with these groups, in my view, as a strategic hedge. They are not sure who’s going to win in Afghanistan. They’re not sure what’s going to happen along that border area. So, to a certain extent, they play both sides.

COURIC (voice-over): In the mountains west of Kabul, Gates acknowledged to local leaders that when U.S. bombs kill civilians, they give the Taliban a propaganda bonanza. But the U.S. kills civilians unintentionally; the Taliban commit atrocities deliberately.

The Taliban use brutality -- amputations, beheadings -- to intimidate and expand their power. And they often hold public executions. Just last month, a Taliban firing squad shot a man and a woman in front of a crowd because they had tried to elope -- a death penalty offense in the Taliban’s view because the woman was engaged to someone else. In the office on his plane, we asked what keeps him up at night.

GATES: I suspect everybody would say the thing that frightens them the most is a group like Al Qaida getting hold of a weapon of mass destruction. And I think that’s -- that really is a serious worry.

COURIC (on camera): Like a nuclear weapon in Pakistan?

GATES: Not necessarily from Pakistan. There are -- you know from North Korea -- North Korea’s another worry.

COURIC (voice-over): During our trip we also stopped in Saudi Arabia. Gates’ motorcade took us to see U.S. troops who train the royal family’s bodyguards. Because Gates is the only Bush holdover in the Obama cabinet, he has a unique view of both Presidents. But he’s extremely reluctant to share his insights.

(on camera): You have said that President Obama is more analytical in your view than -- than President Bush.

GATES: Something I wished I hadn’t said.

COURIC: Why? Why?

GATES: Well, because I -- I really have been very disciplined about not drawing those kinds of comparisons.

COURIC: What three words would you use to describe President Bush?

GATES: Committed, questioning, eager to make a decision and move on.

COURIC: What about President Obama?

GATES: Deliberative, decisive, calm.

COURIC (voice-over): Deliberative, decisive and calm also describes Bob Gates. An Eagle Scout from Kansas, he has served eight presidents. But this Washington insider prefers being outside Washington, a city that he says is too full of egos.

GATES: Washington is the only place in the world you can see a prominent person walking down Lovers Lane holding his own hand.

COURIC: The troops appreciated his Washington one-liners.

GATES: Place where those who travel the high road of humility encounter little heavy traffic. A place where so many people are lost in thought because it’s such unfamiliar territory.

COURIC: So we asked him why he agreed to be secretary of defense for President Bush and to stay on under President Obama.

GATES: I do it because it’s my duty and I do it almost exclusively for these young men and women in uniform out here. And whatever I can do to help them, the rest is all fluff as far as I’m concerned.

COURIC: He takes his commitment to the troops very personally.

(on camera): I know you went to Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran’s Day and you went to see who had died on the day you were sworn in.

GATES: Yeah.

COURIC: Why -- why did you do that?

GATES: It just mattered to me. And I keep track of the -- of the number who have died and the number who have been wounded on my watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GATES: Since the hour I was sworn in as secretary of defense, 1,327 American men and women in uniform have been killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan; 10,443 have been wounded. Each of them is in my thoughts and prayers every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COURIC (voice-over): Bob Gates takes his work home with him; goes to bed at eleven, gets up at 5:00, and avoids the Washington dinner circuit.

(on camera): But even if you don’t like Washington, you like your job?

GATES: The truth of the matter is being secretary of war in a time of war is a very painful thing. And it’s not a job anybody should like. I mean, how can you like a job when you go to Walter Reed or Bethesda and you know you sent those young men and women in harm’s way? Every single person in combat today I sent there, and -- and I never forget that for a second. So, no, I don’t enjoy my job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

END

.ETX

May 18, 2009 10:59 ET .EOF

Source: CQ Transcriptions

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