Gabriel Wilson
Dr. Gabriel Wilson | |
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| United States Senator from Virginia | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2021 Serving with Mark Warner | |
| Preceded by | Tim Kaine |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gabriel Wilson August 20, 1948 Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (PhD) |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1970-2011 |
| Rank |  General |
| Commands |
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| Battles/wars |
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Dr. Gabriel Wilson (Born August 20, 1948) is an American politician, author and retired United States Army General, serving as the junior United States Senator from Virginia as of January 3, 2021. In his 41 years in the United States Army, he commanded forces in the War in Afghanistan, War in Iraq and First Gulf War.
Wilson was commissioned in the United States Army through West Point Military Academy. From a service family, and a career servicemember, Wilson retired in 2011 and went on to hold multiple private sector roles. In early 2019, Tim Kaine announced his retirement from the United States Senate at the next election, and thus, Gabriel Wilson declared his intention to run for the seat. Running on a mainstream platform, and agreeing with the anti-Wadeism of the Democratic party at the time, he won both the primary and the general election handily.
In the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, Gabriel accused then-President Frank Wade of having planned a coup and called him an enemy of democracy and freedom. As Senator, Gabriel has earned a reputation of a policy wonk, as he eschewed sloganeering for charts and statistics in explaining his policy proposals. He criticized the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan - claiming that it was this botched up withdrawal that led to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and eroded trust in the US internationally - but strongly supports President Jim Byron's actions in support of Ukraine. He has called Putin "our century's Hitler" and "a menace to the liberal international order".
Early Life and Education
Gabriel Wilson was born in 20 August 1948. His father – Jonathan – was employed at a desk job in a big company while his mother was working as a librarian. As a young boy, going into the library where his mother worked, he would read books about the exploits of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hannibal and Napoleon Bonaparte. As he was a rather reserved young man who was lacking in social interactions, those books provided him company. He would dream of one day becoming a great general, like those men, and even surpassing them.
Growing up, his uncle Alexander - a Korean War veteran - helped Gabriel become more socially competent and gain more friends. He also instilled in him a love for baseball. Gabriel graduated from high school with good grades, especially on history, mathematics and literature. He went on to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. During that time, Gabriel was a baseball star and often played on semi-pro teams for no remuneration. He was considered one of the most outstanding college players in the nation during his junior and senior seasons at West Point, noted as both a power hitter and an outfielder, with one of the best arms in his day. He rejected multiple offers to play professional baseball, choosing to pursue his Army career. Gabriel became a cadet captain on the brigade staff, and was a "distinguished cadet" academically, graduating first in the Class of 1970 with an academic score of 2424.12 merits out of a possible 2470.00 or 98.14.
After completing Ranger School (Distinguished Honor Graduate and other honors), Gabriel was assigned to the 509th Airborne Battalion Combat Team, a light infantry unit stationed in Vicenza, Italy. After leaving the 509th as a first lieutenant, Gabriel became assistant operations officer on the staff of the 2nd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart, Georgia and in 1975 he assumed command of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment (Mechanized), and then served as that battalion's operations officer, a major's position that he held as a junior captain.
Gabriel became aide-de-camp to General James B. Vaught - commanding general of the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) - in 1977. Gabriel then attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1978-9, earning the General George C. Marshall Award as the top graduate of the Class of 1979, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Military Science. He subsequently earned an M.P.A. in 1981 and a Ph.D. in international relations in 1983 from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 1984–1985, he served as operations officer to the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized)'s 30th Infantry Regiment. He was then posted as an aide and assistant executive officer to the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General John A. Wickham Jr., in Washington, D.C.
Upon promotion to lieutenant colonel, Gabriel moved from the office of the chief of staff to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)'s 3rd Battalion 187th Infantry Regiment, known as the "Iron Rakkasans", from 1986 to 1989. Gabriel was promoted to colonel and assumed command in 1989 of the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, centered on the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. In that capacity, he took part in United States invasion of Panama. The goal of the 1st Brigade task force (1–504th, 2–504th INF, 4–325th INF, Company A, 3–505th INF, 3–319th FAR) was to oust Manuel Noriega from power. They were joined on the ground by 3–504th INF, which was already in Panama. The invasion began with a night combat jump and the takeover of airfields. This was followed by air assault missions in Panama City and the surrounding areas of the Gatun Locks. The 82nd then successfully assaulted multiple strategic installations, such as the Punta Paitilla Airport in Panama City and a Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) garrison and airfield at Rio Hato, where Noriega also maintained a residence. Several key objectives such as Madden Dam, El Ranacer Prison, Gatun Locks, Gamboa and Fort Cimarron were secured.
Seven months later, the 82nd Airborne Division was again called to war, this time in the First Gulf War. In August 1990, the division was deployed to Riyadh and Thummim Saudi Arabia. Intensive training began in anticipation of desert fighting against the heavily armored Iraqi Army. On 16 January 1991, Operation Desert Storm began. The 1st Brigade (commanded by Gabriel) and 3d Brigade consolidated at the Division HQ (CHAMPION Main) near Dhahran. In the coming weeks, using primarily the 5-Ton cargo trucks of these NG truck companies, the 1st Brigade moved north to "tap line road" in the vicinity of Rafha, Saudi Arabia. Eventually, these National Guard truck units effectively "motorized" the 325th Infantry, providing the troop ground transportation required for them to keep pace with the French Division Daguet during the incursion. The ground war began almost six weeks later. On 24 February, the 1st Brigade moved forward to extend the Corps flank along with 3d Brigade. In the short 100-hour ground war, the 82d drove deep into Iraq and captured thousands of Iraqi soldiers and tons of equipment, weapons, and ammunition. During that time, the 82nd's band and MP company processed 2,721 prisoners.
Upon returning to the United States, Gabriel retained his command of the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. His brigade's training cycle at Fort Polk's Joint Readiness Training Center for low-intensity warfare was chronicled by novelist and military enthusiast Tom Clancy in his book Airborne. In 1995, Gabriel was assigned to the United Nations Mission in Haiti Military Staff as its chief operations officer during Operation Uphold Democracy. His academic background helped him to dialogue with civilian aid groups and UN officials, and he learned how to communicate effectively with senior military and political leaders in Washington. He supervised training programs for the police, sought funding to build schools and civic buildings, and helped to coordinate transportation and support for raids targeting criminal elements that still disrupted stability in the major towns. Gabriel even found a way to restore power to key parts of Port-au-Prince: he sent a staff officer to the foreign embassies in the capital, seeking donations to purchase generators.
From 1997 to 1999, Gabriel served in the Pentagon as executive assistant to the director of the Joint Staff and then to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Henry Shelton. In 1999, Gabriel returned to the 82nd Airborne Division as the acting commanding officer. From the 82nd, he moved on to serve as chief of staff of XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg during 2000–2001.
During 2001–2002, as a brigadier general, Gabriel served a ten-month tour in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of Operation Joint Forge. In Bosnia, he was the NATO Stabilization Force assistant chief of staff for operations as well as the deputy commander of the U.S. The hunt for war criminals, which Gabriel directly oversaw as the deputy commanding general, was the army’s largest special operations and intelligence deployment in the world at the time.
Service in the United States Army
In 2003, Gabriel assumed command of the 101st Airborne Division during V Corps's drive to Baghdad. He led his division through fierce fighting south of Baghdad: in Karbala, Hilla and Najaf. Gabriel routed any remaining Iraqi army units and subdued pockets of fedayeen after several sharp engagements. Following the fall of Baghdad, the division conducted the longest heliborne assault on record in order to reach Nineveh Governorate, where it would spend much of 2003.
When the 101st’s advanced units reached Mosul on 22 April, they found a gloomy and daunting situation. There were no competent security forces in the city, and pillaging was widespread. Gabriel employed classic counterinsurgency methods to build security and stability: targeted kinetic operations and using force judiciously, jump-starting the economy, building local security forces, staging elections for the city council within weeks of their arrival, overseeing a program of public works, reinvigorating the political process, and launching 4,500 reconstruction projects in Iraq. Gabriel had long experience in nation-building thanks to his previous commands in Haiti and Bosnia. He firmly believed that good governance, personal security and economic and social growth would win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. As a political progressive, he had faith in the power of government to change peoples' lives.
Gabriel also took the novel step of reorganizing the division, starting with key staff functions, to better align with existing Iraqi governmental structures. The 101st’s division surgeon and medical team were assigned to work with the Iraqi Ministry of Health. The staff communications experts were paired with the Telecommunications Ministry, and the division engineers with the Ministry of Public Works. The division aviation brigade, in addition to flying their helicopters, would also support the students and faculty of Mosul University, which had been closed due to violence. The restoration of the Mosul University was one of the most important public works launched by Gabriel, who strongly supported the use of commanders' discretionary funds for public works. "Money is ammunition," he said, which quickly became a catchphrase.
In February 2004, the 101st was replaced in Mosul by a portion of I Corps headquarters. As Gabriel left Mosul, the region collapsed: the governor of Nineveh Province was assassinated, and most of the Sunni Arab Provincial Council members walked out in the ensuing selection of the new governor, leaving Kurdish members in charge of a predominantly Sunni Arab province. Later that year, the local police commander defected to the Kurdish Minister of Interior in Irbil after repeated assassination attempts against him. The failure was attributed to the change of attitude: whereas Gabriel was a 'builder', his successors were occupiers. They did not have a people-centric approach, which Gabriel had, or interest in local governance.
In June 2004, less than six months after the 101st returned to the U.S., Gabriel was promoted to lieutenant general and became the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq. This newly created command had responsibility for training, equipping, and mentoring Iraq's growing army, police, and other security forces, as well as developing Iraq's security institutions and building associated infrastructure, such as training bases, police stations, and border forts. During Gabriel’s fifteen months at the helm of MNSTC-I, he stood up a three-star command virtually from scratch and in the midst of serious fighting in places like Fallujah, Mosul, and Najaf.
By late summer, the Iraqi troops faced their first test: Najaf, about 100 miles south of the capital, a U.S. Marine patrol approached the hiding place of Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite radical whose militias had been generating widespread violence in Sadr City, Baghdad’s largest slum. Sadr’s militia reacted by attacking U.S. and government personnel and facilities throughout the city. Several U.S. Army battalions and three of the newly stood-up Iraqi battalions were ordered to retake the city along with marine units already there. The ensuing combat was intense and validated Gabriel’s direction. While U.S. forces on the ground and in the air had done the bulk of the fighting, the Iraqi forces at least had stood their ground and had not fled.
By the end of Gabriel’s command, some 100,000 Iraqi Security Forces had been trained; Iraqi Army and Police were being employed in combat; countless reconstruction projects had been executed; more than 39,000 weapons, 22 million rounds of ammunition, 42,000 sets of body armor, 4,400 vehicles, 16,000 radios, and more than 235,000 uniforms, and other equipment had been distributed in what was described as the largest military procurement and distribution effort since World War II, at a cost of over $11 billion.
In the fall of 2005, Gabriel returned to the United States. As the insurgency got worse in Iraq, Gabriel began to develop a counterinsurgency doctrine. In the recent decades few American leaders had studied counterinsurgency seriously, and even fewer had practical experience. Gabriel approached the creation of the new doctrine in a typically unorthodox manner. In February 2006 he assembled a team of experts with wide-ranging expertise. Over the winter months, he oversaw the writing of the first draft. The team of experts was decidedly unmilitary, because in addition to soldiers and marines, professors, writers, intelligence officers, and even representatives from nongovernmental organizations were asked to contribute. Formally published in December 2006, it advocated a different approach to war than the prevailing US doctrine.
Political power was the key to counterinsurgency operations, Gabriel argued. The occupying force had "to get the people to accept its governance or authority as legitimate". Ensuring the population's sense of security was thus vital. To achieve this, Gabriel proposed a novel set of solutions involving not only combat operations, but the development of host-nation security forces, the provision of essential services by the host nation’s government, the building of host-nation political legitimacy, and the restoration of civilian economic activities.
The publication received extensive positive coverage. In January 2007, Gabriel succeeded Gen. George Casey as commanding general of MNF-I to lead all U.S. troops in Iraq. During Gabriel’s tenure, the Multi-National Force-Iraq endeavored to work with the Government of Iraq to carry out Gabriel’s strategy that focused on securing the population. Doing so required establishing—and maintaining—persistent presence by living among the population, separating reconcilable Iraqis from irreconcilable enemies, relentlessly pursuing the enemy, taking back sanctuaries and then holding areas that have been cleared, and continuing to develop Iraq's security forces and to support local security forces, often called Sons of Iraq, and to integrate them into the Iraqi Army and Police and other employment programs. In order to ensure domestic support for his efforts, Gabriel aggressively leveraged his media networks and talents to invite think-tank experts, pundits, and journalists to Iraq, providing them access and telling the story of the U.S. effort.
On August 28, Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) militias, in what amounted to a bid for supremacy among Shia militia factions, attacked the Imam Hussein shrine in the city of Karbala, one of the holiest sites of Shia Islam. The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) had expected that Sunni fighters might conduct an attack, but violence by Shia militants initially caught them by surprise. The ensuing battle resulted in more than 100 casualties and prompted a harsh response from the ISF, which conducted a full clampdown. House-by-house searches for the perpetrators ensued, and the pressure on Sadr himself grew so intense that he ordered JAM to adhere to a ceasefire. It was a significant victory for the ISF, which proved that they would place Iraq above their own sectarian identity as Shias and stand up to criminal behavior wherever it was found. Gabriel took this as a sign that his ideas of good governance were taking root in Iraq. He attributed this success to the reforms he pushed forward: removing some militant leaders from opposition to the government; political reforms that were beginning to clean up the national ministries; and the positive influence of development activities.
In December 2007, The Washington Post's "Fact Checker" stated that "While some of Wilson’s statistics are open to challenge, his claims about a general reduction in violence have been borne out over subsequent months. It now looks as if Wilson was broadly right on this issue at least". By the early months of 2008, U.S. deaths were at their lowest levels since the 2003 invasion, civilian casualties were down, and street life was resuming in Baghdad. In late May 2008, the Senate Armed Services Committee held nomination hearings for Gabriel, who was widely praised. On September 16, 2008, Gabriel formally gave over his command in Iraq to General Raymond T. Odierno.
On October 31, 2008, Gabriel assumed command of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) headquartered in Tampa, Florida. He was responsible for U.S. operations in 20 countries spreading from Egypt to Pakistan—including Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. In mid-August 2009, Gabriel established the Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence within the USCENTCOM Directorate of Intelligence to provide leadership to coordinate, integrate and focus analysis efforts in support of operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
On June 23, 2010, the President announced that Gabriel would be nominated as commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. After being confirmed by the Senate on June 30, Gabriel formally assumed command on July 4. He focused on governance expansion, anti-corruption initiatives, promoting economic development, investing in infrastructure projects and improving security. The surge in troops supported a sixfold increase in Special Forces operations. 700 airstrikes occurred in September 2010 alone versus 257 in all of 2009. From July 2010 to October 2010, 300 Taliban commanders and 800 foot-soldiers were killed.
In early February 2010, Coalition and Afghan forces began highly visible plans for an offensive, codenamed Operation Moshtarak, on the Taliban stronghold near the village of Marjah. It began on 13 February and was the first operation where Afghan forces led the coalition. Led by the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (US), the offensive involved 15,000 US, British, Canadian, Estonian, Danish, French, and Afghan troops. It was the biggest joint operation since the 2001 invasion that ousted the Taliban. While initially successful, ISAF and the Afghans failed to set up a working government in the town, leading to a successful resurgence by the Taliban, but by early December the fighting there was declared "essentially over".
In 21 May 2011, a NATO helicopter airstrike of a village led to the death of twenty-three Afghan civilians, including nine young children. The operation was launched after faulty intelligence indicated that Taliban insurgents were hidden in the village and that there was low danger of civilian casualties. Gabriel gave a deeply emotional public apology in the aftermath of the airstrike, and said: "These deaths should have never happened." Although several journalists noted the candor in Gabriel's open regret, some on the left used this as evidence that Gabriel was a war criminal.
As a commanding officer, Gabriel was popular with subordinates and peers alike, for not only his human understanding and consideration of their needs, but also his humility. For example, he invited his peers’ criticism to refine military plans for success. Gabriel learned and honed his leadership skill by watching superior officers – good and bad — for traits to emulate or avoid. His leadership style had as key aspects: growing his people, building a community within each of his commands, and exercising foresight. One of his primary goals was to unleash his team’s talent to solve problems. He established a community of openness, which encouraged staffers to respectfully disagree with him or other superiors, if they thought them wrong on some point.
In 2013, after Gabriel had retired from the US military, it was leaked that he had an affair with Alexandra Wright during 2007 - 2008, a journalist for the Washington Post covering the Iraq War. Aside from the fact that he cheated on his wife with a much younger woman, there were also ethical concerns raised about how fair the coverage of Gabriel's conduct by the Washington Post had been given the relationship between Gabriel and the journalist. Some claimed that Gabriel had also used Alexandra's connections with journalists in other papers to influence the way he was covered by other publications as well. Gabriel apologized for the relationship but claimed that the reporting of his command in Iraq was unbiased.
Early Political Career
Gabriel retired from the U.S. Army on August 31, 2011. With the end of his military career, he declined the President's offer to become the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Instead, he focused on writing his military memoirs. Published in May 2013, it was titled A Soldier's Life – Gabriel Wilson. It was widely praised and became a bestseller. Gabriel also expanded his social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to promote himself and the book. Some spoke of the general harboring political ambitions, as he had never hidden his liberal political views.
In March 2013, Gabriel accepted the role of honorary chairman of the OSS Society. In July 2013, he was named visiting professor at Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. In September of that year, he was harassed by some of the students while walking on campus. The encounter was uploaded on social media and Gabriel’s calm, polite and measured response became viral. On May 1, 2013, the University of Southern California named Gabriel as a Judge Widney Professor, "a title reserved for eminent individuals from the arts, sciences, professions, business and community and national leadership".
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., a New York investment firm, hired Gabriel as chairman of the firm's newly created KKR Global Institute in May 2013. At his new position, he would support its investment teams and portfolio companies when studying new investments, especially in new locations. In December 2014, Gabriel was named a partner at KKR and remained chairman of the KKR Global Institute until January 2015. In that position, he was involved in a publicly unpopular deal in which he bought a chain of properties of low income people and raised their rents. He has since apologized for this, but it remains a sore point for many in the left.
In June 2014, Gabriel announced the creation of the gun control group Veterans Coalition for Common Sense. He was strongly opposed to Frank Wade's presidency and gained some reputation (and ire) for his strong public comments against the President. He would also be occasionally called on TV shows to offer commentary on current affairs.
U.S. Senator
In 2019, he announced his intention to run for the office of Senator of Virginia. "I have always believed that the power of government can make peoples' life better," Gabriel said. "That was my philosophy in Iraq and Afghanistan; that clean, decent government can promote economic and social progress. That is my philosophy for the United States of America too."
Gabriel easily won the Democratic Senate primaries, owing to his national profile and war hero status, despite opposition from anti-war progressive Democrats. He ran on a rather progressive domestic platform: expanding health insurance coverage to 97% of Americans, reducing income tax on lower-class families while ensuring that the wealthy would pay their fair share, raising the minimum wage, investment into American infrastructure and criminal justice reform. On social issues, he took pro-choice stance on abortion rights and a moderate liberal position on immigration. He also strongly attacked Frank Wade as being 'mentally deranged', 'unfit to lead' and a 'danger to American democracy'. Foreign policy did not feature that prominently, but Gabriel supported a presence where need be to stand strong against terrorism ("we cannot allow terrorists to threaten the safety of American citizens"), strong support for NATO and containment of Russia and China. He also made veterans' welfare a big issue of his campaign. He won his Senate race with 55% of the vote.
In the aftermath of the January 6 riot, Gabriel accused Wade of having planned a coup and called him an enemy of democracy and freedom. As Senator, Gabriel has earned a reputation of a policy wonk, as he eschewed sloganeering for charts and statistics in explaining his policy proposals. He criticized the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan - claiming that it was this botched up withdrawal that led to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and eroded trust in the US internationally - but strongly support Jim Byron's support for Ukraine. He called Putin "our century's Hitler" and "a menace to the liberal international order". He has been pushing for stronger support for Ukraine and has been one of the most hawkish US Senators on the issue. At the same time, he has also expressed his strong support for Taiwan and called for the US to increase military shipments to the island republic. He has also blasted the CCP as enemies of freedom and democracy, criticized them for cracking down on Hong Kong and for their genocide in Xinjiang, and called for massive public investments into US domestic production to decouple from China.