Former defense secretary Robert Gates has stirred controversy with the release of his new 600-page book, Duty: Memoirs Of A Secretary At War, which offers his candid and often damning insider assessments of the Obama administration, Congress, and Washington politics. Here are some notable revelations from Gates’ book:
An entire department exists expressly for the defense of America, and Gates himself was once the head of it
Though he lauded the entire armed forces while in office, Gates admits in retrospect that three of the troops were in fact kind of shitty
Some 150 pages in, Gates drops a bombshell revelation that members of the U.S. Congress are selfish and even, at times, incompetent
Obama was unaware of a war in Afghanistan until late 2009
Admits that he found it very liberating to be able to talk openly with so many people who knew the truth about 9/11
President Obama brazenly attempted to exert control over nearly every aspect of the country, in the manner of a sort of “chief executive”
Secretary Gates has a fantastic command of the written word, with a vital, transcendent voice and effortless ability to draw the reader into a living, breathing world of mystery and political scandal
Sasha Obama is the better daughter
In one of many vicious personal attacks throughout the book, Gates specifically calls out Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar as “aggravating,” “vindictive,” and even “anti-American”
Alleges that President Obama refers to sandwiches as “sammies” behind closed doors
At the conclusion of the 600-page account, Gates writes that, all things considered, he actually had a pretty good time in Washington
