Call me crazy but this isn’t the way to make friends and influence people. Another scapegoat. The Air Force. Gee, that’s nice. Hey Bobby…. if you’re not happy with the leaders, can’t you change them???? Isn’t that your job? And if they are dragging their feet, maybe there’s a reason. Maybe it’s time to GET OUT!!!! Talk about a dumb thing to say.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are “stuck in old ways of doing business.”

Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been “like pulling teeth.”

More at Yahoo News

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Maybe Bush is planning on being around and in control in 2009, whether in person or by proxy.

Gates: U.S. to send more troops to Afghanistan

Troops will be deployed regardless of Iraq situation, defense secretary says

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. intends to send many more combat forces to Afghanistan next year, regardless of whether troop levels in Iraq are reduced further.

It’s the first time the Bush administration has made such a commitment for 2009.

Gates was speaking to reporters on Friday while flying to Muscat, Oman, from a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania. The Pentagon chief said that President Bush made the troop pledge during the summit.

Gates said Bush was not specific about the number of additional troops that would go to Afghanistan. The U.S. now has about 31,000 troops there.

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By JONATHAN KARL
cross posted from THE HUFFINGTON POST

It’s been an article of faith for the Bush administration that the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do.

However, the man now in charge of running that war said he is not sure.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates‘ stunningly candid answer came in an interview with New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Gates: ‘I Don’t Know’

Asked if the invasion of Iraq was worth doing, Gates first rephrased the question: “If I’d known then what I know now, would I have done the same? I think the answer is, ‘I don’t know.’”

Compare that to the words of President Bush, who has said consistently and forcefully that the invasion was the right thing to do.

“I strongly believe we did and are doing the right thing,” Bush said May 25, 2006.

“Removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing for world peace and the security of our country,” he said again April 6, 2006.

“It is a necessary war to secure our peace,” the president said July 12 of this year.

Asked to clarify the defense secretary’s comments on the war, Pentagon officials referred back to his confirmation hearing in December where Gates said it was “too early to tell” if the invasion was the right decision.

read more HERE

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These SOB’s don’t give a rat’s ass about the troops. They’ll use them up and then throw them to the curb when they’re done with them.

Senate Democrats are confident they can pass legislation to give troops more rest between Iraq deployments, a measure aimed at pressing the Bush administration to change its war policy.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a dangerous “backdoor way” to draw down additional forces. Gates said he would recommend a veto.

“If we get this next phase wrong - no matter how you feel about how we got to where we are, the consequences of getting this wrong for Iraq, for the region, for us are enormous,” he said Sunday.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., responded that shorter breaks were creating an undue strain on U.S. troops and their families.

“They deserve the same amount of time back home as they stay in the field,” Reed said.

More at Yahoo News

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By Andrew Gray

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday the United States had probably underestimated how hard it would be for Iraqi political leaders to agree reconciliation measures.

Gates, speaking at the end of a Middle East tour, also said he had urged countries in the region to redouble efforts to pressure Iran over its nuclear program, declaring “there’s not really room for bystanders.”

He said he was more optimistic now than several months ago that increased U.S. troop levels could improve security in Iraq, but political progress had proved harder than anticipated.

The main Sunni Muslim bloc quit Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government on Wednesday, underscoring how difficult relations are between political groups.

“We probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation which, let’s face it, is not just some sort of secondary kind of thing,” Gates said.

“The kinds of legislation they’re talking about establish the framework of Iraq for the future, so it’s almost like our constitutional convention,” he told reporters aboard his plane as he flew back to the United States.

read more HERE

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By Sue Pleming and Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates travel to the Middle East next week seeking Arab support to stabilize Iraq but they may face an uphill battle from Saudi Arabia.

U.S. officials are increasingly frustrated with Sunni Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia that harbor doubts about Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government, seeing it as unable to pacify the country and too close politically to Shi’ite-dominated Iran.

A senior State Department official said on Friday Iraq’s Sunni Arab neighbors must send an “affirmative” message of support to the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and to Sunni moderates in Iraq.

“We want to see all of the neighbors, particularly such key partners as Saudi Arabia and the (United Arab) Emirates, play in Iraq the kind of supportive and constructive role that will be in their interests as well as ours in the region in confronting the negative forces,” said the official, who spoke on condition he was not named.

Rice and Gates will deliver this message when they meet ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Jordan and Egypt in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, followed by meetings in Saudi Arabia.

“The region itself can’t sit on the fence waiting. It needs to positively engage as well,” said the senior official.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the Saudis had offered financial support to Sunni groups in Iraq and U.S. officials were increasingly concerned about its close Arab ally’s “counterproductive” role in Iraq.

read more HERE

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The scary thing about this…….has anything they’ve done since going into Iraq NOT turned out “worst case scenario?” I guess our service members better prepare themselves for even longer deployments.

From Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he does not anticipate extending U.S. troop deployments in Iraq beyond 15 months, calling the idea a “worst-case scenario.”

And no doubt this will turn out “worse case scenario” too.

Gates endorsed the military’s efforts to work with some Iraqi insurgents who initially fought against U.S. forces. That may be the only way to bring peace to the bitterly divided nation, he said

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Oh, now it’s just a “goal.”

From IraqSlogger.com

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced in April that he would be extending US Army deployment in Iraq from 12 to 15 months, he also offered a guarantee that the extensions would allow troops a full year of home leave between war zone deployments. But with the announcement this week of 35,000 troops scheduled for deployment by the end of the year, it appears that a number of soldiers are having that guarantee shorted.

Stars and Stripes reports that members of the 1st Armored Division’s 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry, Company A, learned Tuesday that they are scheduled to head back to Iraq in November, just nine months after the 150’soldier company left the combat zone in February after a 13-month deployment.

Gates had announced last month that active-duty US Army force deployments in Iraq would be extended from 12 months to a maximum of 15 months, with a guaranteed 12 months at home base between deployments.

Gates said the new 15-month maximum deployment, 12-month minimum home base scheme would give soldiers “a more predictable, reliable” timetable for planning.

“What we-re trying to do here is provide some long-term predictability for the soldiers and their families about how long their deployments will be and how long they will be at home, and particularly guaranteeing that they will be at home for a full 12 months,” Gates said during the press conference announcing the extensions.

On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, tempered the DoD’s commitment to an absolute 12-month home leave rule. Rather than a guarantee, Whitman said, the 12-month dwell time between deployments “is a goal, to have units and individuals to have an appropriate amount of time for recovery and for stability purposes at home station and to be able to be with their families.”

But asked late Wednesday about the situation, Stars and Stripes reports Gates said he could not explain why the Army was sending back the company from Germany just nine months after its last Iraq deployment.

“I’ll be very interested in finding out more about that,” Gates said. “We just need to find out about that, because I made it clear that people would have 12 months at home.”

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Gates: “The goal in September is not whether the violence has been significantly reduced or stability has been brought, it seems to me, but rather whether it has been reduced to a level that the political reconciliation process is moving forward in some meaningful way.

Am I the only one that thinks this is a really stupid statement?

U.S. officials will base a decision about bringing American troops home from Iraq on whether, by early September, the ongoing troop surge produces enough of a reduction in violence to allow for political progress, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress Wednesday.

“I think we-re going to be looking for the direction of events,” Gates stressed during an appearance before the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee. “The goal in September is not whether the violence has been significantly reduced or stability has been brought, it seems to me, but rather whether it has been reduced to a level that the political reconciliation process is moving forward in some meaningful way.

“I think if we see some very positive progress and it looks like things are headed in the right direction, then that’s the point at which I think we can begin to consider reducing some of these forces,” Gates said.

He promised that he-ll provide an “honest evaluation of whether the strategy is working or not.” And, he said, “The outcome of that evaluation is not foreordained.”

Continue reading at Air Force Times

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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected a proposal to let governors command active duty troops responding to disasters, officials said Wednesday, though the Pentagon will grant National Guard leaders more authority to coordinate with other military and homeland security agencies.

Gates told Congress Wednesday he had approved 20 of the 23 changes recommended recently by an independent commission in an effort to improve Guard funding, equipment and coordination in emergencies.

His comments came just days after tornadoes in Kansas highlighted deficiencies with Guard equipment and gaps in planning that were exposed by the Gulf hurricanes more than 18 months ago.

Gates did not reveal which recommendations from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves that he rejected. But two defense officials familiar with the matter told The Associated Press he didn’t agree with the panel’s suggestion that governors be allowed to direct active duty troops responding to emergencies in their states.

More at the Examiner

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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Defense Secretary Robert Gates slipped into Iraq Thursday to warn Iraqi leaders that the U.S. commitment to a military buildup there is not open-ended.

Gates said the political tumult in Washington over financing the military presence in Iraq shows that both the American public and the Bush administration are running out of patience with the war. He was speaking to reporters in Israel just before his quick flight to Baghdad.

“I would like to see faster progress,” he said, adding that momentum by the Iraqi government on political reconciliation as well as legislation on sharing oil revenue would “begin the process to send a message that the leaders are beginning to work together.”

Full story at Yahoo!

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Read my lips….. HE IS A TOOL…..HE LIES……JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM! You rubberstamped him……now here’s what you get.

Senate Budget Committee leaders yesterday gave Defense Secretary Robert Gates until the end of the month to testify on inconsistent cost estimates for the troop “surge” in Iraq.

They set the deadline amid anger among Democrats that Gates cancelled a planned appearance at next Thursday’s hearing on the defense budget and offered to send another Pentagon official instead.

Senators had thought Gates would become the first Pentagon chief to testify before the panel since the war began and would make good on a vow he made to Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) before his confirmation.

Conrad and Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the panel’s ranking Republican, wrote to Gates yesterday urging him to reschedule by March 1.

Gates’s decision not to appear comes less than a week after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) alarmed lawmakers by projecting that the president’s plan to increase troop numbers in Iraq could cost more than four times the $5.6 billion promised by the Bush administration.

“People deserve to hear from the secretary of defense on how he squares the dramatic differences in these estimates,” Conrad said in an interview, adding, “He told me in the confirmation process that he would come; now this news comes out and suddenly he’s unavailable.”

Lt. Col. Brian Maka, a Department of Defense (DoD) spokesman, offered a different version of events, stating that Deputy Secretary Gordon England had been scheduled to testify at Senate Budget, as he already has done at the House Budget Committee.

In addition to the CBO’s cost estimate for the “surge,” which Gates disputed on Friday, Conrad and Gregg are concerned about the White House’s $623 billion 2008 defense budget. Though the White House agreed recently to bipartisan requests to include war costs in the annual budget, the 2008 request continues to treat Iraq costs as emergency expenses that have no effect on deficit projections.

Read more at the Hill

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Right…..and I’m gonna be crowned Miss Universe! It could happen!!! Gimme a friggin break. How many times have we heard this shit before? If……if…….if…….if.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that the United States could start withdrawing troops from Iraq later this year – “if circumstances on the ground permit.”

Gates made the remark in answer to questioning from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

Gates was asked how much longer troops would remain deployed in Iraq before the United States begins to draw them down.

“It’s hard to make any kind of a real prediction, especially where our adversaries have a vote,” Gates said.

However, he said, “I would hope we would be able to begin drawing down our troops later this year” — if a “plan to quiet Baghdad is successful,” Iraqis accept “their responsibilities” and assume “leadership,” and they also carry out “political reconciliation.”

The hearings were briefly disrupted by protesters from Code Pink, a group that opposes the Iraq war.

Read more at CNN.com

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Robert Gates has decided disagreeing with the decider in charge of deciding is emboldening the enemy. What a shock. Well, congress rubberstamped this guy…..you get what you ask for.

From YahooNews

“It’s pretty clear that a resolution that in effect says that the general going out to take command of the arena shouldn’t have the resources he thinks he needs to be successful certainly emboldens the enemy and our adversaries,” Gates said Friday.

“I think it’s hard to measure that with any precision, but it seems pretty straightforward that any indication of flagging will in the United States gives encouragement to those folks,” Gates said, referring to the anti-government forces in Baghdad. He added that he was certain this was not the intent of those who support the congressional resolution, “but that’s the effect.”

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Did he just say the troop surge in Iraq was designed to show Iran the US was not overcommitted? So it has nothing to do with helping the Iraqis? It has to do with beating the war drum for Iran? Well thanks for letting us know that Mr. Gates!

Increased US military activity in the Gulf is aimed at Iran’s “very negative” behaviour, the Bush administration said today.
The defence secretary, Robert Gates, told reporters that the decision to deploy a Patriot missile battalion and a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf in conjunction with a “surge” of troops in Iraq was designed to show Iran that the US was not “overcommitted” in Iraq.

Speaking in Brussels after meeting Nato officials, Mr Gates said: “We are simply reaffirming that statement of the importance of the Gulf region to the United States and our determination to be an ongoing strong presence in that area for a long time into the future.”

Read more at The Guardian

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