Is Gates Undercutting Obama on Libya?

Is Defense Secretary Robert Gates guilty of “insubordination”? Jennifer Rubin and Mark Thiessen think so. This because Gates had the temerity to tell Congress that, so long as he’s SecDef, U.S. ground troops will not be deployed to Libya. This, they say, amounts to a “threat” to resign if ever Obama embraced such a policy.

“If that’s [Gates’] advice to the president, shouldn’t it be given in private?” asks Rubin.

Frankly, it sounds like he is publicly threatening to resign should the president -- his boss and the commander in chief -- ever decide to put ‘boots on the ground.’

It is the president’s choice, but Gates is suggesting that he has the president over a barrel. This is, in a word, indefensible.

Gates’ comment came in sworn congressional testimony. Thus he had a solemn obligation to speak candidly and forthrightly about American defense and foreign policy. He had an obligation to share with members of Congress and the public his best military advice and counsel.

(And it’s not just a question of Gates’ legal obligations: The American people and American democracy are best served when policymakers such as Gates share their thinking not just privately with the president, but also publicly with the media and Congress.)

To be sure, the SecDef may not have articulated his thoughts always with artful precision. After all, saying there will be no U.S. ground troops in Libya “as long as I am in this job” does suggest that this is a policy you will never support or administer even if, in time, the president opts for such a policy.

I happen to believe that it would be wise to deploy U.S. ground troops to Libya. Still, does anyone seriously doubt that Gates is faithfully reflecting President Obama’s widely announced decision to avoid doing any such thing? This was the point that Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell tried, subsequently, to make to Rubin, but apparently to no avail.

As for insubordination, that has a very precise meaning; and it does not involve speaking candidly and forthrightly with Congress and the public.

In any case, Gates works for Obama. And so it is Obama who must decide whether his defense secretary has been “insubordinate.”

John Guardiano blogs at www.ResoluteCon.Com, and you can follow him on Twitter: @JohnRGuardiano.

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