Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Dec. 11, 2008, visiting visiting Kandahar, Afghanistan. Pool photo by Scott OlsonFrom The New York Times:
WASHINGTON — Robert M. Gates spent 115 days on the road last year as President George W. Bush’s defense secretary and the superintendent of the United States’ two wars. He was in Iraq three times, Afghanistan twice, Russia, Kosovo, India, Kyrgyzstan — 26 countries in all.
Not this year. As President Obama’s defense secretary and the lone holdover from the Bush cabinet, Mr. Gates has cut back his trips overseas and is staying close to home.
His advisers say his most important travel now is the two-mile journey he makes almost every day between the Pentagon and the White House, where this canny, deceptively bland Washington master of adaptation — he is a former director of central intelligence who has served eight presidents of both parties — is trying to cement his role in the Obama inner circle.
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My Comment: His loyalties are to the United States of America .... that's good enough for me.