On ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos this morning, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that a review of America’s strategy in Afghanistan should be done in “a matter of a few weeks.”
“I don’t expect this to be a protracted process,” Gates said.
As for Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s request for tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops for Afghanistan — which was reported several days ago by The Washington Post — Gates said he hasn’t officially passed the request along to President Obama yet, saying “I’m going to sit on it until I think or the President thinks it’s appropriate.”
Gates called the attempted cover-up by Iran of a secret nuclear site — which the U.S. and its allies disclosed to the world on Friday — “part of a pattern of deception and lies.”
Gates said he hoped that “severe sanctions” would convince the Iranian government to reverse course on its nuclear program — which he said would otherwise be capable of producing nuclear weapons in “somewhere between one to three years.”
The Secretary also expressed skepticism about President Obama’s ability to make good on a promise to close the prison at Guantanamo within the first year of his administration.
“It’s gonna be tough,” Gates said.
Gates also appeared earlier on CNN’s State of the Union.
