--- title: "5 Incredible Quotes About Afghanistan From Former SecDef Robert Gates’ New Book" date: "2014-01-08" modified: "2014-01-08" authors: - name: "Brian Adam Jones" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/brianadamjones/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/history/incredible-quotes-robert-gates-book-war/" categories: - "Afghanistan War" - "History" - "Past Conflicts" tags: - "central command" - "Leadership" - "Pentagon" --- # 5 Incredible Quotes About Afghanistan From Former SecDef Robert Gates’ New Book ![]() Robert Gates, who ran the Department of Defense for both the Bush and Obama administrations is dropping a memoir, and [according to early reviews](), he holds little back about how the war in Afghanistan was managed. [“Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,”]() the first major tell-all from a Cabinet member in the Obama administration, will go on sale Jan. 14. Here are five of the most memorable quotes: **1. On the culture of Obama's National Security Team:** “I was deeply uneasy with the Obama White House’s lack of appreciation — from the top down — of the uncertainties and unpredictability of war.” **2. On Vice President Joe Biden:** “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” **3. On Obama’s thoughts on then-Commander of Coalition Forces in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and the strategy in Afghanistan:** “As I sat there, I thought: The president doesn’t trust his commander, can’t stand Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy and doesn’t consider the war to be his.” **4. On Obama’s decision to order the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden:** “One of the most courageous decisions I had ever witnessed in the White House.” **5. On being buried at the same area of Arlington National Cemetery as many of the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan:** “The greatest honor possible would be to rest among my heroes for all eternity."