US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said yesterday that while the US is no longer at war in Iraq, history will judge whether the fight was worth it.
The Pentagon chief met with troops at Camp Ramadi just a few hours after US President Barack Obama declared an official end to the US combat role in Iraq and told Americans it was time to “turn the page.”
Asked whether the US was still at war in Iraq, Gates said succinctly, “I would say we are not.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
He was less direct when asked whether the war was worthwhile, saying that will depend in part on whether Iraq emerges as a democratic anchor in the Middle East.
That judgment “really requires a historian’s perspective,” Gates said.
“I believe our men and women in uniform believe we have accomplished something that makes the sacrifice, the bloodshed, not to have been in vain,” he said. “How it all weighs in the balance remains to be seen.”
“The problem with this war, I think, for many Americans, is that the premise on which we justified going to war turned out not to be valid,” Gates said.
“Even if the outcome is a good one from the standpoint of the United States, it’ll always be clouded by how it began,” he said.
Ramadi, home of one of the US military’s new advisory brigades, is in the heart of Anbar Province, the cradle of the Sunni insurgency against the initial US occupation.
Gates said Anbar holds a special and haunting significance for the US military. Several members of his staff were wounded or saw their comrades killed in the province during the worst years of the fighting.
The difference between that time and now was illustrated by the questions soldiers asked the secretary. Some of their top concerns included health care, retirement and the state of combat pay now that the combat mission is officially over.
One soldier asked whether the US might maintain a military presence in Iraq after 2012, when all US forces are due to leave by agreement with the Iraqi leadership.
“Any such proposal would have to be at the initiative of the new Iraqi government,” Gates said. “We would obviously be willing to look at that.”
He emphasized that the US was still waiting for the formation of that new government before that idea can even be broached.
After his session with the troops, Gates flew to Baghdad for meetings with General Ray Odierno, the outgoing commander of US forces in Iraq, and his successor, Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin.
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