been sacked by president obama s defense secretary robert gates. we have a new strategy, a new mission, and a new ambassador. i believe that new military leadership also is needed. mckiernan, shortly before he had been fired, had been visited by secretary gates in afghanistan, and mckiernan spread the word to other senior officers he said, well, it looks like we maybe have done too good of a job telling people how bad things are over here. 2009 is going to be a tough year. there are the baseline problems of poverty and literacy and violence. that s not going to turn around quickly. so whether gates intended it or not, there was a very clear message sent out to other senior officers, which was, we don t want you to be pessimistic in public. secretary gates tells me, go