January 17, 2008

Gates Goes To The Media

UPDATED.

Several news items are coming from an NPR interview with Defense Secretary Robert Gates broadcast this morning. Some highlights:

No more troops sent to Afghanistan. Gates announced earlier this week that he would ask President Bush for about 3,000 Marines to be sent to Afghanistan, after EU nations would not step up their NATO commitments, but he told NPR that there were no plans to send any more U.S. troops after the additional 3,000.

Iran does not pose an immediate threat. Gates called Iran a "challenge" but not a "direct military threat" to the United States.

Iraq is a "long-term" problem. Declining to make predictions on specific troop levels, Gates said he was heartened to see the Democratic presidential candidates demur on specific numbers as well and added that his goal is to leave the next administration with a sustainable policy on the war.

In other media interviews this morning, Gates addressed NATO countries' reaction to his comments that appeared in the Los Angeles Times yesterday about their ill-preparedness for fighting an insurgency in southern Afghanistan. The paper quotes him as saying, "I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations."

The U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands was summoned to the Dutch Defense Ministry yesterday to do cleanup for Gates. (Dutch, British and Canadian forces make up most of the European NATO presence in southern Afghanistan.) Roland Arnall offered a "clarification" for Gates' comments, noting that NATO forces aren't trained for counterinsurgency fighting and Gates hadn't intended to single out a specific country for criticism. Afterward, a Dutch official told a media outlet, "We assume this was a misunderstanding... This is not the Robert Gates we have come to know. It's also not the manner in which you treat each other when you have to cooperate with each other in the south of Afghanistan."

See the full NPR and LA Times stories for more.

Posted at 10:40 AM
Posted to: Iran, Iraq, Middle East, Robert Gates
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