Enter the Grown-UpRobert Gates' impressive—and reassuring—confirmation hearings.

(Continued from page 2)

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Correction, Dec. 6, 2006: Due to an error in notes, this article originally misidentified the senator who asked Gates if he favored a return to the draft. It was Bill Nelson, D-Fla., not Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. (Return to corrected sentence.)

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Fred Kaplan is Slate's "War Stories" columnist and author of 1959: The Year Everything Changed. He can be reached at .

Photograph of Robert Gates by UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch.

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