In a shocking indication of a split between the White House and the Pentagon over the war in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes that the U.S. military will never leave the war-torn country. During a dinner hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for Afghan President Hamid Karzai in May, Gates reminded the group that he still feels guilty for his role in the first President Bush’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, according to Bob Woodward’s new book, “Obama’s Wars.” And to express his commitment to not letting down the country again, he emphasized:

“We’re not leaving Afghanistan prematurely,” Gates finally said. “In fact, we’re not ever leaving at all.” Woodward notes that the group was shocked by the blunt comment: “At least one stunned participant put down his fork. Another wrote it down, verbatim, in his notes.”

The definitive statement seems to clash with President Obama’s assertion that he does not want to leave the war to his successor. Though he has emphasized that the U.S. will stay in Afghanistan “until the job is done,” he wants almost all the US troops out before the end of his first term in January 2013, leaving in place a small contingency force.

Well, you have to give him credit for being honest about it.




  1. deowll says:

    We are going to leave Afghanistan. I may not know when but we are going to leave.

  2. Sea Lawyer says:

    We still have combat forces garrisoned in Korea don’t we?

  3. moss says:

    Plenty of Americans never left VietNam.

  4. McCullough says:

    #3. Too true. Probably some POW’s still alive.

  5. MikeN says:

    How about we do the wars in order. First let’s get troops out of 1)Germany and 2)Japan and Okinawa, then 3)Korea. Then we’ll get troops out of 4)Iraq. Then out of 5)Bosnia. Then out of 6)Kosovo. Then we’ll do 7)Afghanistan. Do we still have troops in Haiti? If so we’ll put that in spot 5.

  6. e? says:

    Odd. The opium harvest is down by half this year, so it’s really pointless to keep wasting western blood and money on a bunch of third-world tribesmen and villagers. None of them want us there anyway (except perhaps Karzai for the $$$$).

    http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0930/Afghanistan-opium-crop-blight-sends-drug-prices-soaring

    The place is a dump. Leave it to the dogs. The smarter ones will find a way to get out; the others… meh, don’t care. No good ever comes from the place.

  7. pben says:

    So much for civilian control of the military.

  8. RexOfRome says:

    America’s business is war. If we weren’t there we’d be someplace else. Corporations love war and they’ve made the American people think it’s necessary. Eisenhower warned us about this and we did not listen.

  9. jccalhoun says:

    as others have pointed out we still have troops in Germany, Japan, and Korea so why would anyone think we wouldn’t want to have a permanent presence in Afghanistan? Heck we still have a base in Cuba because of a treaty signed over 100 years ago.

  10. Ah_Yea says:

    Pakistan next.

  11. pcsmith says:

    We will leave Afghanistan eventually, with our tail between our legs, just like every other army that entered Afghanistan.

    Better sooner than later.

  12. Cursor_ says:

    Again I will be the sole voice that says it could have ALL been avoided.

    But the US loves a pound of cure over an ounce of prevention.

    Cursor_

  13. marf says:

    We need less war and war R&D!! and more nano/biotech R&D life extenstion research. Who in their right mind would then support endless wars?

    Just like the personal computer revolution gave us the internet and the way to using early nanotech techniques to make smaller transistors and now we are entering an age where we are developing the advanced nanotech/biotech where we can control the processes (inside our cells) that is aging.

    Aubre de Grey (of the mprize and SENS) says that 10 years and 1 to 2 billion could give us the tech to stop aging…after that, another 10 to 20 years will give us the advanced nanotech to be able to reverse aging and total control of all the cellular processes.

    Craig Venters synthetic cell tech is an example of the coming tech we can use to interface repair nanobots to fix our cells. So why are we wasting billions/hour on wars and standing armies?

    All empires come and go, like the British empire was finished off by WWl and WW2, now the US is losing key tech to China and India, and who will harvest the trillions from age reversing nanotech….will it be the US with it’s endless wars, or will it be some other established high-tech countries like the EU, or will China and India eventually take the prize due to their super competitive cultures?

    What is it going to be, more war machines and more war, or will it be more health machines and more health?

  14. Lou Minatti says:

    “Who in their right mind would then support endless wars?”

    Barack Obama.

  15. Dallas says:

    Refreshing to hear a government official speak factually, popular or not.

    The fact is, when the Cheney administration chose to empire build in Persian Gulf, we take up permanent residency. Always have, always will.

  16. Aaron says:

    “The definitive statement seems to clash with President Obama’s assertion that he does not want to leave the war to his successor. Though he has emphasized that the U.S. will stay in Afghanistan “until the job is done,” he wants almost all the US troops out before the end of his first term in January 2013 . . .”

    So John and Adam are right. It was the plan all along for President Obama to have only one term and he doesn’t want Hillary to have the distraction from the rest of the agenda.

  17. Improbus says:

    “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.” — Winston Churchill

    I agree.

    Oh, Alfy, are you back on your meds? You are actually making sense.

  18. GF says:

    Waziristan should be carpet bombed and the Paki’s should STFU about it.

  19. dewtheone says:

    We can’t leave…. someone has to stick around to harvest the poppies

  20. Dallas says:

    #22 Well, I’m neither a Muslim nor Christian thumper so I really don’t punish myself. However, I’m not opposed to playful spanking.

  21. CrankyGeeksFan says:

    Today’s 21 & 18 year old soldiers were 12 & 9 on September 11, 2001. The President needs to look at children his daughters’ ages – 12 & 9 – to remotivate himself to make the world a better place for them.

  22. NobodySpecial says:

    @# 9 jccalhoun
    We (the British army) not only still have troops in Ireland 350years after the conclusive military victory – but they are being killed by insurgent bombs today.

    Hope you enjoy your first millennium in Afgahnistan.

  23. BailOutBob says:

    What makes you think Obama supports Endless War Lou Minatti?

    Maybe you are part of the problem and think Bush and the right are your heroes


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