Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates with American troops in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Friday. Plans to visit soldiers earlier in the week were marred by poor weather. Pool photo by Justin SullivanGates’s Trip Hits Snags in Two Theaters -- New York Times
ERBIL, Iraq — It is an axiom of war that no battle plan ever survives the first encounter with the enemy, but the travel plans of the defense secretary last week barely survived encounters with his own troops and allies.
No one in the entourage of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was calling the trip a metaphor for the mire ahead in Afghanistan, but no one was calling it a previctory lap either. As Mr. Gates told troops in Iraq, previewing the infusion of 30,000 new American troops to Afghanistan: “I think it will look a lot like the surge here in the first six or eight months of 2007. The first six to eight months were pretty tough here.”
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My Comment: The following sentence sums up the Secretary's trip perfectly ....
Mr. Gates found himself grounded by weather in Kabul, stood up by the prime minister in Baghdad and startled by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who blurted out at a palace news conference that the Afghans would not be able to pay for their own security forces until 2024.
Filled with unexpected surprises, bad luck, swept aside by political leaders with more pressing problems, and finally .... being told that the bill to pay for everything cannot cover the expenses of maintaining Afghanistan's military for any period of time.
Sigh .... he should have stayed home.