Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe said former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates should have outlined to the American people his concerns about President Barack Obama's national security management style and wobbly commitment to the Afghanistan war while he was still in office,
BuzzFeed reported.
On Thursday, Inhofe, ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
told Newsmax's John Gizzi that he was becoming a "fan" of Gates after reading excerpts from his book, "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary At War," to be published this week.
Interviewed on the WABC's Aaron Klein Program, Inhofe said "I think, yes, we can justly criticize Bob Gates for admitting that he knew these things were going on and he did not reveal these to the American people."
Inhofe continued: "If you go back and look at the history of some of the secretaries of defense that we've had, they have been very outspoken in being honest with the American people. And Bob Gates wasn't."
The senator also charged that the president and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were "both . . . playing a political game [in Iraq] with the lives of Americans and our allies [and that] is something that should be a huge wake up call to the American people," Inhofe said.
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