LACK OF PASSION: Gates – Obama Unemotional at Medal of Honor Ceremony Unlike Bush

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has strongly criticized President Obama’s passion for the nation’s military – contrasting his attitude strongly with that of his predecessor President George W. Bush.

In his forthcoming memoir ‘Duty’, Gates claims that he never once saw Obama become emotional during a Medal Of Honor ceremony – claiming that his coldness was in stark contrast with Bush, who would regularly ‘well up’.

Declaring himself to be ‘disturbed’ by this ‘absence of passion’, Gates goes onto say that the only time he saw his commander-in-chief become animated during his time in the administration was during Obama’s push to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’

‘One quality I missed in Obama was passion, especially when it came to the two wars,’ Gates wrote.

‘In my presence, Bush — very unlike his father — was pretty unsentimental. But he was passionate about the war in Iraq; on occasion, at a Medal of Honor ceremony or the like, I would see his eyes well up.

‘I worked for Obama longer than Bush, and I never saw his eyes well up.’

In his opinion, Obama was most concerned with getting rid of the United States’ military policy barring openly gay soldiers from serving – and with his Affordable Care Act.

Gates wrote that ‘the only military matter, apart from leaks, about which I ever sensed deep passion on his part was ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’

‘For him, changing the law seemed to be the inevitable next step in the civil rights movement. He presumably was also passionate about health care reform, but I wasn’t present for those discussions.’