Failure in Iraq will unleash sectarian strife and extremism and will be felt first in the Middle East, visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.
Speaking to a US Chamber of Commerce luncheon on the third day of his Middle East tour, Gates exhorted Arab countries to use their influence to dampen the insurgency and encourage political reconciliation in Iraq. “Whatever disagreements we might have over how we got to this point in Iraq, the consequences of a failed state in Iraq - of chaos there - will adversely impact the security and prosperity of every nation in the Middle East and Gulf region,” Gates said in remarks prepared for delivery.
He warned that while some who disagree with the war may be cheering for failure in Iraq, “these sentiments are dangerously shortsighted and self-destructive”. The initial effects of failure, he said, will first be felt in Middle East capitals and communities “well before they are felt in Washington or New York”.
Gates reaffirmed the US commitment to Iraq and to protecting allies in the area - while also alluding to the raging debate between the Democratically controlled Congress and the Bush administration over bringing an end to the war. The arguments, he said, probably reflect those going on across the Middle East but do not suggest the US is not determined to keep working with its allies in the region. That “is a responsibility we will not abandon, a trust we will not break,” he said. Gates also said that Iran and Syria need to become part of the solution by reducing the violence and helping promote reconciliation in Iraq. |