Reply #6: It is evident [View All]

even if upon the best interpretation Gates is there to mitigate and put the brakes on Bush II the end result is the same. he is the nicer, more hopeful "good cop" face on a truly BAD cop, crooked cop administration. Perhaps he himself is poised to go either way depending on whether Cheney bulls ahead or the GOp manages to extricate itself even partly from the oil prize. I think the Pentagon has been hacked by the Cheney branch of government to make sure both of the two faces are kept in line with the bad cops.

More cynically- and it is literally impossible to be too cynical about this administration in all its phony avatars- this providing nice cover and salves to Congress is just his job which is more PR than substance in any event. In accepting this crap, Congress is ironically cementing the impotence of any conceivable force for change that might prevent the Iran debacle. They would do better to slam him for not doing more while challenging who is setting policy and bringing that individual(the Shadow Emperor Cheney) to immediate account.