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.
Completely agree - heard that statement on the news last night and shook my head...
We had lots of senators (dims and dopes) on board, testimony to the UN (for what it was worth), international concensus (especially through intell reports) that this dude needed to be taken down - and YES, he could be linked to al kookoo activities that resulted in 9/11.
CASE CLOSED!!!!!
For Gates to throw the troopers who fought and died and the admin that appointed him under the bus and give succor to the marxists in power is repulsive...
shame on him!
In fact, he knows that we achieved every goal listed in the original authorization for war passed by congress.
Even the WMD goal — Iraq no longer can threaten their neighbors with weapons of mass destruction, because we KNOW they don’t have them. Sure, it’s possible their threat was an idle one before, but the uncertainty made the threats real. Not finding WMD was as good for the region as finding and destroying WMD.