Gates warns US adversaries not to test Obama

[cal04]

Source: AFP

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned on Saturday that US adversaries would be "sorely mistaken" to test Barack Obama in the Gulf and called for regional pressure to change Iran's behaviour.

"Anyone who thought that the upcoming months might present opportunities to 'test' the new administration would be sorely mistaken," he said at an international security conference.

"The president-elect and his team, myself included, will be ready to defend the interests of the United States, and our friends and allies, the moment he takes office on January 20," he said.

Gates said a change of behaviour, rather than a regime change, was sought from Tehran.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081213/pl_afp/gulfsecurityiisspoliticsiraniraq_081213092927

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Gates Visits Iraq to Help Prepare for Troop Cuts
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2008/12/13/world/AP-ML-Gates.html

[elleng]

1. Gates did a good job,

imo.

[Grinchie]

2. Actually, it sounds rather weak and pathetic

If one has a strong military, everyone knows it.

When an official sternly warns potential enemies that they "Better Not!" than we all have something to worry about, because he's lying, and they are worried about paying for the Military that they have, not the Military they wished to have.

(Had to throw that Rumsfeld jingoism in there.)

No, the U.S. has been screwed in every orifice by the Bush regime, and Nancy Pelosi was happy to watch.
Sure, we can nuke the world 80 times over, but nobody ever contemplates what kind of disaster that would be for all life. Is America strong enough to pollute the Globe for several thousand generations?

Hopefully, the lunatics will not get a chance to try it out and see what happens.

[gravity]

13. He isn't talking about attacks against the US

Of course no one is going to directly attack us.

The test comes from our enemies performing military actions like attacking another sovereign nation, like Iraq in 1991, building a nuclear weapon, or attacking UN troops like in Somalia. They want to test how the US would react in those instances, whether they will be firm in policing the world or would the US let the rogue nations get away with it.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Bring 'em on. Smirk." - Commander AWOL Bush (R)

"Ooops, I forgot, I'm almost a has-been. No one cares when I make idiotic or dangerous statements anymore, not even my base of 'elite' fatcat republicon chickenhawks. Smirk."

- Commander AWOL

[madrchsod]

4. the real problem in the middle east is saudi arabia

and we all know no one is going to piss them off....

[RC]

5. More saber rattling. Just what we need.

As another poster posted, if we were strong, we would not need to be warning anyone about anything.
I am hoping at long last, we can Give Peace a Chance, even if (or especially if) it is the only thing we can afford to do.
Working with others toward common, peaceful goals has to be cheaper than killing them en masse.

[KingOfLostSouls]

6. This is smart politics from Obama

I think obama made a smart political move when he decided to hold gates over for the immediate future. he knows that repubs will be doing the "retreat/defeat" bullshit talking points when he yanks troops out of iraq and engages in diplomacy with iran.


having a republican SecDef, especially one who's a holdover, gives a tremendous amount of political cover.


and gates is just happy to have the free lunch for a while.


this is smart political strategy from obama to get his mission accomplished. I applaud is superior gamesmanship.

[Kolesar]

7. They flattened Manhattan because of bush/Rumsfeld's horribly managed "transition"

Ashcroft's Department of Justice ignored terrorist threats. They were actually concentrating on pornography.

[ohio2007]

8. what adversaries ?

Why do "they" need to keep the boogy man alive ?

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4BC15X20081213

The "adversaries" get less bang for the buck with oil revenues at 30% of what they were only months ago.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081211/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_iran
lucky for them,
talk is cheap but
why are they unwilling to talk?


http://www.ontheissues.org/Barack_Obama.htm

[Algorem]

9. it's like big-time wrestling talk

or an old gangster movie,"Don't mess with me,shee.You'll be sorry,shee."

He should just list these axis of evilians and tell them to "Step off." That's how I would handle it,shee.

[acmavm]

10. I think this is a very smart move by both Gates and Obama. And I HATE to

say this, I really really do. But Robert Gates is turning out to be a much better in his position than I ever thought he would. I still don't trust him. But he's been very effective. And I do believe that there are many who would be foolish enough to think that Obama would hesitate if there were an attack on US soil or an invasion anywhere. And I do think it's good that that notion was dismissed right away. This is the type of 'proactive' action that I think is more effective than open threats (like what the bush** admin is constantly doing in regard to Iran).

And I do think the message might be intended to be heard by Palin's buddy Putin as well.

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. As a matter of act, I'm inclined to think it's also for domestic consumption -

to counter the endless lies of the Republican nerds' noise machine, that they're the only tough guys (because, via their directorships, they bilk the country of trillions of dollars for their armaments factories), and the Democrats are weak on defence. Heck, you sometimes hear it on here though, admittedly, it is full of trolls.

[No Elephants]

12. I'm sure this scared off any nation or other group with thoughts of attacking the U.S. It's almost

as effective as a strongly worded letter.

Is he kidding or what? This is not even passable saber rattling.

[IMPERIUM V]

14. Maybe Hillary Clinton should pick up the slack

[No Elephants]

16. Because Hillary saying it would discourage, say, Al Qaeeda, more than Gates and Biden saying it?

Seriously?

[Alamuti Lotus]

15. Good to see that the macho dong thumping will go on unabated

And I was worried that something was going to change.........