At a meeting with defence pundits, Mr Gates used an image from American football to describe his situation: he said he had punted the ball, caught it himself, and now had Congress bearing down on him fast.
During his tenure as defence secretary, Mr Gates led the defence department through the repeal of a ban on gays openly serving in the military, known as the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
At a closed meeting of Nato defence ministers on Wednesday, Gates singled out the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey for refusing to take part in the strikes.
Behind the gates in Defence Colony, a posh south Delhi neighborhood, where plush residences loom large and the streets are lined with expensive sedans, the battle rages on between residents and the "outsiders".
Some protesters had attached themselves to barricades, while residents folded up chairs behind the lines of defence guarding the front gates and sat in defiance, awaiting the bailiffs who had begun to gather outside.
The appointment of General Jones and the retention of Gates at defence "all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, the unconditional summits with dictators and other foolishness that once emanated from the Obama campaign".
The defence argued that the gate was normally open, and that padlocking it on the day of the incident was a "provocation".
The Panns Port illustrates the portcullis defences of the gate-houses (Fig. 1).
ROBERT Gates, the American defence secretary has said on a visit to London that European hostility is pushing Turkey away from the west.
Beijing was a fortified city with an extensive system of inner and outer city walls, gates, watchtowers and defence that was not just mechanically advanced, but architecturally spectacular.
