Over the last few weeks we have learned much more about the military policy of the Obama White House. Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates details his experiences in his new book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.

Secretary Gates writes that the White House “was by far the most centralized and controlling in national security of any I had seen since Richard Nixon.” He added that “political considerations” became a factor “in virtually every major national security problem we tackled.”

Secretary Gates describes how the military was subjected to “micromanagement and operational meddling.” Often the White House staff would “call a four-star combatant commander or field commander.”

He found that the president was rarely emotionally involved in most of the military policy. He describes how President Bush was “passionate about the war on Iraq.” Although he worked for President Obama longer than President Bush, Gates rarely saw much passion in President Obama, except for one issue. He saw “deep passion” when it came to removing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy concerning homosexuals in the military. “For him, changing the law seemed to be the inevitable next step in the civil rights movement.”

Secretary Gates felt that when it came to the war in Afghanistan, those in the White House engaged in “a good deal of wishful thinking” when it came to strategy. The president was angry about the request from top generals for a major military surge. He was also “deeply suspicious of their actions and recommendations.”

It is not surprising that tensions grew between the Commander in Chief and his military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. We probably didn’t need a book from Robert Gates to explain that, but the book did provide confirmation. One of the reasons Joseph Biden was added to the presidential ticket in 2008 was to add gravitas and foreign policy experience to a freshman senator. This book confirms that it didn’t help very much.