Gates: US Military Involvement in Syria, a Mistake

Former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned that deepening US military involvement in Syria crisis would be a “mistake,” warning the outcome would be unpredictable and mess, according to the Al-Alam website.

In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Gates said, “I thought it was a mistake in Libya, and I think it is a mistake in Syria, even if we had intervened more significantly in Syria a year ago or six months ago. We overestimate our ability to determine outcomes.”

Caution, particularly in terms of arming these groups and in terms of US military involvement, is in order,” he said.

“Anybody who says, “It’s going to be clean. It’s going to be neat. You can establish safe zones, and it’ll be just swell,’ well, most wars aren’t that way,” he said.

Gates, who served under both George W Bush and President Barack Obama, was US defense secretary in 2011 when the United States joined a NATO-led air operation in Libya that helped rebels topple Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

On May 1st, senior US administration officials announced that the US will directly arm the armed groups to topple the Syrian government.

The administration, according to the officials, is also considering supplying what is called “nonlethal” military equipment to terrorist groups in Syria.

H. M

Source: Al-Alam