Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Newport News Daily Press
September 18, 2007 The secretary of defence argues that to abandon Iraq now would be an offense to the interests and values of the U.S.
By Victor Reklaitis
WILLIAMSBURG - The secretary of defense used a democracy forum Monday as a venue for emphasizing reasons to not leave Iraq.
"To abandon an Iraq where just two years ago 12 million people quite literally risked their lives to vote for a constitutional democracy," Robert Gates said, "would be an offense to our interests as well as to our values, a setback for the cause of freedom as well as the goal of stability."
Gates' speech Monday at the Williamsburg Lodge came a day after he blasted a proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, in appearances on two network TV talk shows. The defense secretary on Sunday said Webb's measure to give soldiers more time at home between Iraq deployments is "a back-door effort" to speed up the troop withdrawals that President Bush announced last week.
On Monday, Gates said that for the U.S. "to leave Iraq and the Middle East in chaos would betray and demoralize our allies there and in the region, while emboldening our most dangerous adversaries." He also urged staying the course in Afghanistan, which he called "a litmus test of whether an alliance of advanced democracies can still make sacrifices and meet commitments to advance democracy."
Gates emphasized that it takes time to develop democratic governments, referring to efforts within the last 60 years in Germany, Japan, South Korea and other countries, as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We must be realists and recognize that the institutions that underpin an enduring free society can only take root over time," he said. "It is our country's tragedy, and our glory, that the tender shoots of freedom around the world for so many decades have been so often nourished with American blood."
The defense secretary acknowledged that the United States "has made its share of mistakes" throughout its history.
"From time to time, we have strayed from our ideals and have been arrogant in dealing with others," he said. "Yet what has brought us together with our democratic allies is a shared belief that the future of democracy and its spread is worth our enduring labors and sacrifices - reflecting both our interests and our ideals."
He also talked about past alliances with undemocratic regimes, including the French monarchy during the American Revolution and Joseph Stalin's dictatorship in the Soviet Union during World War II. Gates' speech, titled "Promoting Democracy Abroad: A Realist's View," was filled with many references to U.S. history.
"It is neither hypocrisy nor cynicism to believe fervently in freedom while adopting different approaches to advancing freedom at different times along the way," the defense secretary said, "including temporarily making common cause with despots to defeat greater or more urgent threats to our freedom or interests."
Gates, an alumnus of Williamsburg's College of William and Mary, spoke before hundreds of forum delegates and other invited guests at a private lunch in a conference room in Colonial Williamsburg's Williamsburg Lodge. The three-day forum, called the World Forum on the Future of Democracy, began Sunday and is the Jamestown 2007 commemoration's last main event.
The defense secretary peppered his speech with a few Jamestown references.
"It is a strange quirk of history that a backwoods outpost in an unexplored corner of America would hold in it the seeds of a global movement toward liberty and self-governance," he said. "So much of what defines America first took root here in Virginia along the banks of the James River."
September 18, 2007 The secretary of defence argues that to abandon Iraq now would be an offense to the interests and values of the U.S.
By Victor Reklaitis
WILLIAMSBURG - The secretary of defense used a democracy forum Monday as a venue for emphasizing reasons to not leave Iraq.
"To abandon an Iraq where just two years ago 12 million people quite literally risked their lives to vote for a constitutional democracy," Robert Gates said, "would be an offense to our interests as well as to our values, a setback for the cause of freedom as well as the goal of stability."
Gates' speech Monday at the Williamsburg Lodge came a day after he blasted a proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, in appearances on two network TV talk shows. The defense secretary on Sunday said Webb's measure to give soldiers more time at home between Iraq deployments is "a back-door effort" to speed up the troop withdrawals that President Bush announced last week.
On Monday, Gates said that for the U.S. "to leave Iraq and the Middle East in chaos would betray and demoralize our allies there and in the region, while emboldening our most dangerous adversaries." He also urged staying the course in Afghanistan, which he called "a litmus test of whether an alliance of advanced democracies can still make sacrifices and meet commitments to advance democracy."
Gates emphasized that it takes time to develop democratic governments, referring to efforts within the last 60 years in Germany, Japan, South Korea and other countries, as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We must be realists and recognize that the institutions that underpin an enduring free society can only take root over time," he said. "It is our country's tragedy, and our glory, that the tender shoots of freedom around the world for so many decades have been so often nourished with American blood."
The defense secretary acknowledged that the United States "has made its share of mistakes" throughout its history.
"From time to time, we have strayed from our ideals and have been arrogant in dealing with others," he said. "Yet what has brought us together with our democratic allies is a shared belief that the future of democracy and its spread is worth our enduring labors and sacrifices - reflecting both our interests and our ideals."
He also talked about past alliances with undemocratic regimes, including the French monarchy during the American Revolution and Joseph Stalin's dictatorship in the Soviet Union during World War II. Gates' speech, titled "Promoting Democracy Abroad: A Realist's View," was filled with many references to U.S. history.
"It is neither hypocrisy nor cynicism to believe fervently in freedom while adopting different approaches to advancing freedom at different times along the way," the defense secretary said, "including temporarily making common cause with despots to defeat greater or more urgent threats to our freedom or interests."
Gates, an alumnus of Williamsburg's College of William and Mary, spoke before hundreds of forum delegates and other invited guests at a private lunch in a conference room in Colonial Williamsburg's Williamsburg Lodge. The three-day forum, called the World Forum on the Future of Democracy, began Sunday and is the Jamestown 2007 commemoration's last main event.
The defense secretary peppered his speech with a few Jamestown references.
"It is a strange quirk of history that a backwoods outpost in an unexplored corner of America would hold in it the seeds of a global movement toward liberty and self-governance," he said. "So much of what defines America first took root here in Virginia along the banks of the James River."