You’ve heard the line that some public figures are loved for the enemies they’ve made. If this is true, then the news that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is under attack in the pages of the New York Post may only increase his popularity, rather than decrease it.

It seems some anonymous Post editorial writer has taken exception to Gates’ recent warnings about Washington getting too deeply involved in Libya, and about the US making the mistake of “again send[ing] a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa.”