Speaking today to the American Legion, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates insisted that all is not well in Afghanistan and that it won’t necessarily be well going forward, warning “this is not a time for premature victory parades” just hours before President Obama delivered his formal victory speech.
Gates’ warning focused on the political paralysis in the country, as some six months after the March 7 election there is still no government in Iraq, and a number of attempts at coalitions have collapsed in failure.
But even more pressing than the failure of Iraqis to form a government is the rising level of violence, as literally hundreds of Iraqis have been slain in the past two weeks. July was also the deadliest month in Iraq in over two years.
Gates’ comments may not be particularly welcome, however, as the Obama Administration seems to have settled on the war being “over” despite the massive numbers of US troops still on the ground. President Obama repeatedly declared that it was time to “turn the page” on Iraq, and his Secretary of Defense’s unpleasant reminders of just how bad the war still is seems off-message in that regard.
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gustes
August 31st, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Offcourse Mr. Gate…, that is because of your master G.W Bush stupidity going to war to begain with…
beeboltwu
September 1st, 2010 at 3:45 pm
I think he is trying to clean his butt and blame it on the OBAMIE BOY. Both get their orders from the top. Each one repeats what he has been told to say.
Carpenter
September 1st, 2010 at 4:55 pm
He is right of course, all is not well in Iraq. And the victory parade was premature. Incredibly foolish by Rahm Emanuel to let his Obama read that speech to the cameras. That speech will be mentioned every time there is a large bombing in Iraq, and every time a group of Americans are killed. It will be compared to the equally false "Mission Accomplished" speech, and it will be used to humiliate Obama for years. Bad move.
River Rat
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:05 am
Carpenter, your right because first of all we invade these country's for all the wrong reason'. greed. American people should look back at WW11 and see how much we accomplished in four years,and come home to a victory calibration. Seems like now we can't win a war or a conflict because we might piss of another country or Religion.