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| Gates softens opposition to 16-month Iraq timetable | |
| 2008-12-03 | |
| WASHINGTON (AFP) — US commanders are considering an accelerated drawdown of US forces from Iraq, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday, softening his opposition to president-elect Barack Obama's 16-month timetable. "I am less concerned about that timetable," he told a news conference at the Pentagon a day after Obama announced Gates had agreed to stay on as defense secretary in a Democratic administration. Gates said US commanders were already "looking at what the implications of that are in terms of the potential for accelerating the drawdown and -- and in terms of how we meet our obligations to the Iraqis."
"I think the president-elect has made it pretty clear that he wanted a team of people around him who would tell him what they thought and give him their best advice. I think he has assembled that team," he said. "There will, no doubt, be differences among the team. And it will be up to the president to make the decisions," he said. Gates made clear that he intends to be a full participant, not just a wartime placeholder while Obama and his administration get settled. "I have no intention of being a caretaker secretary," he said. He said he and Obama agreed his tenure would be open ended. Gates has insisted in recent months that he could not conceive of conditions under which he would stay on. But he met discreetly with Obama for the first time on November 11 in Washington after the president-elect had visited President George W. Bush at the White House. "We actually met in the fire station at National Airport and they pulled the trucks out so that our cars could go in," Gates said. "I spent a long time hoping the question would never be popped," he said. "I then hoped he'd change his mind. And yesterday it became a reality." All other political appointees at the Defense Department are subject to replacement by the new administration, he said. Gordon England, the deputy defense secretary announced he would be leaving. Gates wrapped his position on Iraq in some ambiguity. He said that while Obama had repeated his desire to get US combat troops out by the end of 2011, "he also said that he wanted to have a responsible drawdown." "And he also said that he was prepared to listen to his commanders," he said. "And it's within that framework that I think it is agreeable," he added. Gates emphasized that a timetable calling for the withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 already had been set under a status of forces agreement reached with Baghdad. "It's a longer one, but it's a definite timetable. So that bridge has been crossed," he said. "And so the question is how do we do this in a responsible way. And nobody wants to put at risk the gains that have been achieved with so much sacrifice on the part of our soldiers and the Iraqis at this point," he said. Gates concurred with Obama's view that South Asia is the region that now poses the greatest threat of attack to the United States, observing that "we basically have our foot on the neck of Al Qaeda in Iraq." | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 The One wants to end the $ 12B per month drain on the budget that the Iraq war is causing. Gates is a RINO. A man who comes to us from the Central Intelligence buraucracy. He has no military background or foundation. He who will turn on General Petraeus and the military as will The One when the time is right. Excerpt from The Failure Factory: Even in May 2008, when the pressure led Obama to equivocate somewhat (he said, for instance, that he wasn't sure "Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with right now") - featured prominately on the Obama campaign's website - proudly and unabiguously declared, "Obama is the only major candidate who supports tough, direct presidentual diplomacy with Iran without precoditions" (emphasis added). But the same month Obama received support from a seemingly unlikely source: President Bush's defense secretary, Robert M. Gates. On May 14, Gates told a reporter that he favored the conciliatory approach to Iran expoused by liberal New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman - an approach that happened to run counter to the administration's stated position. We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them." Gates said. The defense secretary explicitly proposed making consessions to Ahmadinejad's radical regime. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-12-03 18:48 |
| #3 Gates is a CIA chameleon. But I can't imagine Petraeus will let this go down without a peep if he thinks it a bad idea. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-12-03 16:46 |
| #2 I know a 2 Iraq tour friend of mine will not be happy to see all his hard work and sacrifice pissed on. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-12-03 16:20 |
| #1 Surrendering a significant US military presence in Iraq, to include rights for action against regional adversaries, would be probably the greatest strategic blunder in US history. Not to mention a betrayal (of dead Americans and allied Iraqis) comparable to the abandonment of S. Vietnam. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2008-12-03 02:48 |