This criticism of Obama is not constructive

There is something unseemly about former Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s tell-all memoirs.  

He said President Obama didn’t believe in his own strategy for Afghanistan. 

 Who isn’t confused  about what is happening in that part of the world.  Who blames Americans if they feel increasingly hopeless about the Middle East in general.

Clearly polls show the country is war-weary.  The Afghans and Iraqis just don’t seem to want to do enough to help themselves, although their own domestic political situations should make all of us grateful we don’t live there.

Why did Gates feel he had to speak out now? What does he hope to accomplish? As former head of the Pentagon, shouldn’t he, of all people, respect the chain of command?

It’s so easy to attack a president. George W. Bush became a hapless target of critics in his second term and now it is happening to Obama. With three years to go in his term, it seems that constructive criticism would be more suitable than the dirty laundry Gates is exposing in his book, “Duty.”