Hotline reports on Roberts Gates' Iraq gift to Dems and Obama's picking up on his remark

April 18, 2007

The Gates Gift To Democrats?

Somehow, we missed the extraordinarily provocative words of Defense Sec. Robert Gates , as reported this morning by the Washington Post:

The debate in Congress . . . has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited. The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact . . . in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment."

Does that not justify the actions of the Democratic Congress? Does not that not undermine the Bush Administration's argument that the debate itself is sending precisely the most unhelpful signal possible to the Iraqis? And doesn't this undermine the general Republican contention that the Democrats really have no power -- constitutional or moral -- to influence the course of reconciliation?

Sen. Barack Obama is the first Dem '08er to pick up on the remark:

"After the President has repeatedly ignored the will of Congress and the American people, his own Secretary of Defense now recognizes that the only way to pressure the Iraqi government toward a political settlement is to make clear that American troops will not be in Iraq forever. President Bush has had a long history of ignoring the advice of his commanders on the ground, but let’s hope that he follows the advice of his Defense Secretary so that we can finally begin the process of ending the war in Iraq in a responsible way.”

Posted at 02:57 PM

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/04/the_gates_gift.html