Posted by
arandomguy on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 5:19:26 PM
Robert Gates, President Bush's new nominee to be secretary of defense, began his confirmation hearings today. If confirmed, he will replace Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary that left after the 2006 elections. During his confirmation, by all the news reports, he was very plain-spoken, and gave straightforward answers.
When asked by Carl Levin (who would soon go on a tirade against the war) whether the United States was winning, Gates replied that no we are not. He also said that we clearly had too few troops to handle the invasion when the decision was made in 2003. He also said, what is perhaps the most important - and least covered - statement of his confirmation hearings, when he spoke about the threat of leaving Iraq in chaos.
"Our course over the next year or two will determine whether the American and Iraqi people and the next president of the United States will face a slowly and steadily improving situation in Iraq and in the region or will face the very real risk of a regional conflagration," Gates said. He also said: "My greatest worry, if we mishandle the next year or two, and if we leave Iraq in chaos, is that a variety of regional powers will become involved in Iraq."
And he is right. The danger of leaving Iraq (phased withdrawl) would be chronic instability in the region, that would only be cured by a jihadist takeover. The violence would indeed stop once the jihiadists are in power, because they are the ones fueling the violence and the instability.
If the jihadists take over Iraq, there will be a massive, "super-Iran" right in the center of the mideast, controlling massive deposits of oil, and consistently hostile to America, Israel, and the west. If we want to secure victory, a phased withdrawl is not the way to go. Furthermore, a phased withdrawl - as Robert Gates believes - will get more Americans killed, and will cause us to lose the war.
He also spoke about Iran, and what a conflict with Iran would be like should the situation necessitate one. "We have seen in Iraq that once war is unleashed, it becomes unpredictable, and I think the consequences of military conflict with Iran could be quite dramatic," Gates said.
It is important for the United States that the Secetary of Defense be on board and ready to defend the country and win the war. There are many solutions for victory floating around, some of them bad, some of them good, some of them plausible, and some of them not. It is up to the President and the Secretary of Defense to plot the course that will lead to victory in Iraq as soon as possible.
Robert Gates, hopefully, will be able to achieve victory - before the anti-war left forces us to leave prematurely.