Gates: U.S. misjudged Iraq's political landscape
By Peter Spiegel and Alexandra Zavis
LA Times
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates acknowledged Thursday that the Bush administration underestimated the difficulty of getting a political truce in Iraq, where the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been crippled by a walkout of Sunni Muslim ministers.
Gates insisted that he was optimistic about military progress in several Iraqi regions, particularly western Anbar province, which was once a haven for extremist insurgents.
But he said he was discouraged by the inability of Iraq's Shiite-led government to reach a compromise on legislation aimed at reconciling the country's ethnic and sectarian groups. Reaching such political agreements, a central goal of the ongoing troop buildup in Iraq, may still be long off, he said.
"I just think in some ways we probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together," Gates said.
Gates' remarks Thursday were his closest yet to conceding the Bush administration's top political priorities for Iraq might not occur during the surge, even if it extended into next spring, the latest the military could sustain the increase. He is the top Bush administration official to express such skepticism publicly.
(Continued here.)
LA Times
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates acknowledged Thursday that the Bush administration underestimated the difficulty of getting a political truce in Iraq, where the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been crippled by a walkout of Sunni Muslim ministers.
Gates insisted that he was optimistic about military progress in several Iraqi regions, particularly western Anbar province, which was once a haven for extremist insurgents.
But he said he was discouraged by the inability of Iraq's Shiite-led government to reach a compromise on legislation aimed at reconciling the country's ethnic and sectarian groups. Reaching such political agreements, a central goal of the ongoing troop buildup in Iraq, may still be long off, he said.
"I just think in some ways we probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together," Gates said.
Gates' remarks Thursday were his closest yet to conceding the Bush administration's top political priorities for Iraq might not occur during the surge, even if it extended into next spring, the latest the military could sustain the increase. He is the top Bush administration official to express such skepticism publicly.
(Continued here.)
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