MOSCOW, November 16 (Sputnik) — Two Former US Secretaries of Defense and CIA Directors Robert Gates and Leon Panneta have criticized the “controlling character” of US President Barack Obama’s policy with regard to military issues, according to AFP.
"For the past 25 to 30 years, there has been a centralization of power in the White House," Panetta said in a statement, cited by the news agency. “Because of that centralization of authority at the White House, there are too few voices that are being heard," he claimed.
His colleague Robert Gates also has disapproved of Obama’s controlling approach. He pointed out the existence of a long-term confrontation between US President and military advisers and said that Obama’s intention to control all spheres of US security policy has caused discontent in his administration. Gates compared Obama to the former US President Lyndon B. Johnson, who escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War and was personally “responsible” for choosing military targets.
In his memoir Gates also writes that Obama’s White House has been “by far the most centralized and controlling in national security of any [he] had seen since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger ruled the roost," according to Wall Street Journal.
Robert Gates held office of CIA Director from 1991 to 1993 during George H.W. Bush presidency and served as Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2006 to 2011. Leon Panneta filled the post of CIA Director from 2009-2011, followed by the position of Defense Department chief between 2011 and 2013.
