Sec of Defense Gates Grim Warning: America is losing its grip

“I’ve spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower, and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position...It didn’t have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. This is a different time.”

“To tell you the truth, that’s one of the many reasons it’s time for me to retire, because frankly I can’t imagine being part of a nation, part of a government … that’s being forced to dramatically scale back our engagement with the rest of the world.”

“Congress is all over the place,” Gates says at one point. “And the Republicans are a perfect example. I mean, you’ve got the budget hawks and then you’ve got the defense hawks within the same party. And so I think there is no consensus on a role in the world.”

To read the whole story: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/06/19/the-defense-rests.html