Gates Faults U.S. Allies on Afghan War

[tekisui]

Source: New York Times

BRUSSELS — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates sharply rebuked the United States’ allies on Friday for effectively abandoning Afghanistan and threatening what he described as tenuous progress in the nearly decade-old war.

In a deliberately undiplomatic speech to NATO defense ministers, Mr. Gates called on European allies to put aside their domestic politics and work with the United States to secure the “semblance of normalcy” that he said was emerging in some parts of Afghanistan.

“Frankly, there is too much talk about leaving and not enough talk about getting the job done right,” Mr. Gates said. “Too much discussion of exit and not enough discussion about continuing the fight. Too much concern about when and how many troops might redeploy and not enough about what needs to be done before they leave.”

Mr. Gates signaled that the initial American troop withdrawals ordered for July by President Obama would be limited, perhaps to no more than several thousand troops. Pointedly, he told NATO that “we will not sacrifice the significant gains made to date, or the lives lost, for a political gesture.”

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/world/europe/12gates.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. If you can not win a war in ten years against a tribal society

then you will never win

Gates was later to be heard saying, 'We need their help to get to our minerals'
military idiots
American youth dying for the rich asses greed

[hobbit709]

2. It was a "political gesture" from day one.

All we're accomplishing is creating people that hate us faster than we can kill them. Along with bleeding our country dry and enriching the corporations.

[gratuitous]

3. Oh good, more appeals to the dead

No, let us not let those already dead die in vain. Let's make some more people dead, so that the previous deaths continue to have meaning. Of course, the newly dead must also be accorded the same privilege, so more people will have to die. It's a jolly game, letting the dignity of the dead drive our policy.

[WinkyDink]

9. Dulce et Decorum Est.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!---An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,---
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

[Octafish]

4. What ''tenuous progress''?

K&R.

PS: Gates is a BFEE P.O.S.

[msongs]

5. As long as there is one kid gathering firewood we will never leave nt

[Solly Mack]

6. lololol

Because it's never anything we did...

[kenny blankenship]

7. Inevitable FAIL is inevitable. Now the search for someone to blame begins

It is not the end, nor the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.

[WinkyDink]

8. Gates et al. are deeply, deeply sick. Tempted to say perverted, killing children.