Maybe we should confine this thread to "wild-caught' unintentional humor rather than the kind produced here so often.
I will go along with categorizing unintentional humor anyway you would like; it only seems fair that the guy who provides the vast majority of it around here should get to say what to call it...
As for the Gates memoir:
I'll probably read it, (the guy has been a high level player in US policy over a long period of time; I think reading his perspective on things would be valuable and informative) but from the excerpts I've seen and read so far I find nothing that surprises me and little to disagree with...
For example, anyone who watched Obama's Melancholy Dane routine in the months prior to the announcement of the surge policy in Afghanistan will not be surprised to learn that his support for his own policy there was half-hearted...
It's also not surprising to learn that second tier administration officials acted with contemptuous disrespect towards the uniformed military; this frequently happens in Democratic administrations. (It certainly did during the Clinton years.)
It's also not exactly shocking to learn that there was some political calculus in Hillary's decision making process, or that Joe Biden has been wrong about everything...
Gates also had priase for Obama where he thought it was due, (like the decision to go after Bin Laden) and plenty of criticism for members of congress as well...
As a general principle, I think it's better if folks wait to publish books like this till after an Administration is out of office, (most second term Administrations are already damaged enough without having this kind of thing going on; this Administration
certainly is) but it's a free country and people can publish their books whenever they want to.
At least I'm consistent about my views on this. I've seen folks jumping on Gates about doing this who were dancing with glee when former high ranking Bush Administration officials (like his former Treasury Secretary, O'Neill) were publishing
their memoirs while
he was still in Office.
I believe the word for that is "hypocrisy"...
