Pentagon
13 May 2008
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States must prepare to fight insurgencies and similar types of wars for the foreseeable future, and put less emphasis on preparing for large-scale conventional wars. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.
Secretary Gates said one of the most important things the Defense Department must do to prepare for the future is ensure that the people in the U.S. military are properly cared for, and that their morale is not undermined by defeat, as it was after the Vietnam War.
"The risk of overextending the army is real, but I believe the risk is far greater, to that institution as well as to our country, if we were to fail in Iraq," he said. "That is the war we are in. That is the war we must win."
That comment was reminiscent of one by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who famously said in 2004, with regard to the U.S. army's readiness to fight an insurgency in Iraq, "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." Secretary Gates was saying the United States must fight, and win, today's war with today's army, and also be better prepared to fight similar wars in the future.