Gates says history will judge worth of Iraq war

[babylonsister]

Gates says history will judge worth of Iraq war

By ANNE GEARAN
AP National Security Writer


RAMADI, Iraq (AP) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that history will judge whether the war in Iraq was worth it.

Before attending a Baghdad ceremony Wednesday marking the formal end of the U.S. combat role in Iraq, the Pentagon chief met with troops at Camp Ramadi. Asked whether the U.S. was still at war in Iraq, Gates answered succinctly, "I would say we are not."

Fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops are still in Iraq, down from more than 165,000 at the height of the fighting. Although the remaining troops' main role is to help train Iraqi forces over the next year, they are threatened by violent foes. And several thousand U.S. special operations forces will continue to hunt al-Qaida and other terrorist fighters.

Asked whether the 7 1/2-year war was worthwhile, Gates said 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 added. "Even if the outcome is a good one from the standpoint of the United States, it'll always be clouded by how it began."

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_GATES_IRAQ?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[geek tragedy]

1. That's as much as one could expect from him.

He's (a) a Republican and (b) the current Secy of Defense, who is obviously not going to be able to state the plain truth.

[joeybee12]

2. Yeah, I know what it was "worth"...

history will look even more unkindly on it than I do, if that's possible.

[ixion]

3. The first problem is that it was not/is not a 'war'

and for that and other reasons, it will not be judged kindly by history.

[Johonny]

4. certainly won't ever be worth it for the ethnically cleansed

[gratuitous]

5. The epitaph of a failure

"Whoa, this looks like a catastrophic failure now, but let's wait 20 years. Or 50. Better still, a hundred. Yeah, we'll know then." Here's the short answer: If it was worth it, it would be obvious now. There might be some goods and some bads to balance each other out, but generally speaking, the answer to the "was it worth it" question is plain on its face.

Verdict: No.