Gates: Taliban Have Momentum

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, or as Obama likes to call him "William Gates" or "Ronald Gates," doesn't have good news about Obama's war in Afghanistan.

From the Wall Street Journal:

American public support for the Afghan war will dissipate in less than a year unless the Obama administration achieves "a perceptible shift in momentum," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview.

Mr. Gates said the momentum in Afghanistan is with the Taliban, who are inflicting heavy U.S. casualties and hold de facto control of swaths of the country.

The defense chief has been moving aggressively to salvage the war in Afghanistan, signing off on the deployments of 21,000 American military personnel and recently taking the unprecedented step of firing the four-star general who commanded all U.S. forces there. Mr. Gates, speaking in his cabin on an Air Force plane, said the administration is rapidly running out of time to turn around the war.

"People are willing to stay in the fight, I believe, if they think we're making headway," he said. "If they think we're stalemated and having our young men and women get killed, then patience is going to run out pretty fast."

...Mr. Gates also said Iran was harming U.S. interests in Afghanistan by sending weapons to the Taliban and other armed groups. He expressed particular concern that Tehran might step up its shipments of explosively formed penetrators, powerful roadside bombs capable of punching through even the strongest armor.

At the suggestion of some of his staff, Mr. Gates has begun referring to himself as the "secretary of war," saying that shows he and his department have no higher priority than the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The reality is we have two major wars going on and I feel that very strongly," he said. "That's what makes me impatient."

It's weird. We are at war and taking heavy casualties. Momentum is with the Taliban.

Where's Sean Penn? Why isn't he speaking out?

I haven't heard John Murtha demand that our troops be redeployed.

I haven't heard Harry Reid come out and declare that the war in Afghanistan is lost.

I haven't heard Russ Feingold yapping about a troop withdrawal date.

Where are the protesters?

Why aren't there demonstrations criticizing Obama the hawk, with tens of thousands marching on Washington?

Where are the tallies of civilian dead?

By the way, what are the goals for Afghanistan?

What's the exit strategy?

Is this a quagmire?

The Democrats are silent. The criticism that was so plentiful during the Bush administration has vanished.

The Hollywood and entertainment elite are no longer whining about an endless war.

What was all that noise about anyway?

I no longer hear it.

Have the self-professed peace activists decided to become hawks now that Obama is in charge?

The war in Iraq isn't over. Our troops are still there, being injured and dying; but there's no urgency anymore to stop it.

Seems hypocritical to me.