How bad is that? Why in the world would you nominate someone who doesn't share your vision of the region. He doesn't agree with him on Iran and Syria and on what's going on in Iraq:
At today's meeting with reporters at the White House, the major topics for Press Secretary Tony Snow, as expected, were the pending release of the Iraq Study Group's report -- and today's surprise, the admission by Robert Gates, at his confirmation hearings as new Pentagon chief, that the U.S., indeed, is not winning the war in Iraq.This guy isn't going to let Bush push him around:
Snow said that, as far as he knows, the president has not backed away from his recent statement that the U.S. is actually "winning" in Iraq. He also suggested that Gates, elsewhere in his testimony, seemed to say that maybe we weren't losing and we weren't winning. And he charged that the press was being too negative about all this: "What I think is demoralizing is a constant effort to try to portray this as a losing mission," he said.
He was also pushed on the question of the Iraq conflict turning into a civil war -- which he seriously questioned. "Well, I think one of the dangers is that civil war had been used in a political context," he said. "It's interesting -- what intervened other than an election to get people to change the label?"
A reporter shot back: "The violence got worse, I suppose."
Snow concluded: "I said it's very difficult to figure out that there is any clear definition, and if you have one, please pass it on."
Gates responded later that he has no intention of coming to Washington "to be a bump on a log and not to say exactly what I think, and to speak candidly and, frankly, boldly to people at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue." He also emphasized that he did not seek the job of defense secretary, saying, "I don't owe anybody anything."And in a conflict with Bush, who do you think the press is going to side with?
But there is this little ray of hope that he gets it:
"My greatest worry, if we mishandle the next year or two and if we leave Iraq in chaos, is that . . . we will have a regional conflict on our hands," he said. "You could have Saudi Arabia, you could have Turkey, Syria, Iran -- all would be involved. We're already seeing Hezbollah involved in training fighters for Iraq. I think all of that could spread fairly dramatically."
But then he says something like this:
While the hearing concentrated on Iraq, Gates appeared to depart from administration rhetoric by saying Iraq is just one central front in the anti-terrorism effort. Moreover, he said that over the past five years, Osama bin Laden has posed a greater threat to the United States than has Saddam Hussein.
Um, maybe because Saddam Hussein has been in jail? And maybe Bush or someone should tell him that Al Qaeda is in Iraq. Was this Pelosi's pick for Sec Def?
