The United States will have to make a strategic reassessment in mid-September if Iraq fails to pass laws aimed at reconciliation in the next few weeks, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
Gates called reconciliation efforts at the national level "disappointing" and said he had warned Iraqi leaders that leaving on vacation was unacceptable because "every day we buy you is, we are buying with American blood."
Asked in an NBC television interview whether there would be a strategic reassessment if Iraq did not pass legislation to unify the country by mid-Septmeber, Gates said: "I think we would have to, Yes. That's the whole point of the Crocker-Petraeus effort." He was referring to US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, who are supposed to report to Congress by September 15 on whether a surge in US forces was working and what the next steps should be.
Gates said developments at the local level in places such as al Anbar province, a seat of the Sunni insurgency, have been more positive despite the lack of progress at the top. "So it is a disappointing picture for the central government right now, but there are some positive things happening at the local level. And obviously in the security arena," he said. But he went on to say, "At some point there has to be reconciliation at the national level." "I think we all perhaps underestimated the depth of the misunderstanding and mistrust among these sections in Baghdad over time," he said.