” . . . we have accomplished something that makes the sacrifice and the bloodshed not to have been in vain, that we have accomplished — that our men and women in uniform have accomplished something really quite extraordinary here. “
Sorry, but I don’t see Gates’ remarks as a “betrayal.”
Rather, he is saying what we are all thinking: what our troops have accomplished is “quite extraordinary,” BUT that the long-term is what matters, and that long-term outlook is tenuous because we have an idiot in the White House who is turning his back on Iraq.
Read it again. He is saying our troops believe that. Gates doesn’t say that he does.
It is the clarification in the second answer that is a betrayal:
SEC. GATES: Well, the problem -- the problem with this war for, I think, many Americans is that the premise on which we justified going to war proved not to be valid -- that is, Saddam having weapons of mass destruction.Gates knows that WMD was not the sole reason for taking military action to force regime change. He also knows that we found significant evidence of the continued presence of a significant WMD program even though we didn't find the stockpiles of WMD that everybody thought we would find (the couldn't possibly have been in any of those truck convoys that were racing across the Syrian border during the weeks running up to the war?). So when he says that the premise for going to war "proved not to be valid" even though he knows these facts to be true, he is betraying the troops, the mission, and the President.
“BUT that the long-term is what matters, and that long-term outlook is tenuous because we have an idiot in the White House who is turning his back on Iraq.”
There’s that, of course, but also the fact that we’re betting on a Muslim country to be a good partner in the future. I’m doubtful myself.