Gates warns Iraq commitment isn't over

[unhappycamper]

Gates warns Iraq commitment isn't over
By Nancy Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, August 31, 2010

MILWAUKEE — As the Obama administration prepared to hail the formal end of combat operations in Iraq, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned Tuesday that despite the drawdown, the U.S. military effort in Iraq is not over.

Gates' speech to the 92nd American Legion National Convention in Milwaukee was the first of many this week by top administration officials designed signal the end of major combat operations in Iraq and a renewed effort in Afghanistan.

"This is not a time for premature victory parades or self-congratulation, even as we reflect with pride on what our troops and their Iraqi partners have accomplished," Gates told the American Legion in Milwaukee. "We still have a job to do and responsibilities there."

Gates' voiced quivered as he gave the numbers of killed and wounded in Iraq — 4,427 and 34,268.

The Obama administration is seeking to show it is sticking to a campaign promise to wind down the war in Iraq but not abandoning Iraq or leaving before its pols and security forces can govern the country.

[Skittles]

1. but it IS the time, Gates

ELECTION TIME!

[zipplewrath]

2. And he's a republican

You really think he's gonna help democrats get elected?

[Panaconda]

3. Maybe all these war criminals

can get a D.C lounge band together and call themselves "The Commitments." Probably already have.

The sorrows of empire.