Costly Indifference

Before becoming defense secretary, Robert Gates was in Baghdad in September of 2006 as part of the Iraq Study Group. Being a member of that distinguished group, he told an audience last night, was not enough to win the type of VIP treatment from U.S. troops that he surely now receives everywhere he goes.

The circumstances in Baghdad were pretty ugly back then, but in retrospect there was one lighter moment during the visit. We were quartered in rooms next to the swimming pool behind the palace where our embassy is located. And about two in the morning, the electricity failed – and, along with it, the air conditioning. It was about a hundred degrees, even after dark. After lying in bed for awhile, feeling the temperature in the room rising steadily, I went out in shorts and a tee shirt to find someone to whom I could report the problem and get it fixed. And I encountered several of our soldiers, whose indifference to my discomfort was monumental.

It was too dark to see nametags but, looking back, I can tell you those soldiers missed one hell of an opportunity for quick promotion three months later.