Research Briefing

Despite Claims This Morning, Obama’s Defense Secretary Touted Bush’s Strategy In Afghanistan

ROBERT GATES THIS MORNING: “I think that the strategy [President Obama] put forward in late March, is the first real strategy we have had for Afghanistan since the early 1980s …” (CNN’s “State Of The Union,” 9/27/09)

BUT GATES DEFENDED PRESIDENT BUSH’S AFGHANISTAN STRATEGY IN 2007

In December 2007, Gates Lauded Bush’s Counterinsurgency Strategy In Afghanistan. “Where last year there was one suicide bombing per week, now there is on average one per month … Khost is a model of the integration of hard and soft power in a counterinsurgency campaign … I traveled up to Khost Province, which is a real success story. And I think that really, of all of the parts of Afghanistan where we have a counterinsurgency strategy that is fully developed, it is in RC East. And I think it’s one of the reasons why the area has been somewhat quieter.” (Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates, Armed Services Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearing, 12/11/07)