| Americans are tired of war: Gates Posted: 19 Jun 2011 07:32 PM PDT 
WASHINGTON: US defence secretary Robert Gates on Sunday acknowledged that Americans are tired of war as he underlined that Washington did not have the right strategy and resources in Afghanistan till last year. "I know the American people are tired of war. But, look, the reality is the United States had a very limited commitment in Afghanistan until well into 2008," said Gates, who retires at the end of this month. "We did not have the right strategy and the right resources for this conflict and a lot of resources, those needed to do the job, until the late summer of 2010," Gates told CNN in an interview. He said President Barack Obama made this decision for the second surge in December of 2009. "It took us some months to get the additional surge in," he said. "So I understand everybody is war weary, but the reality is we won the first Afghan war in 2001 and 2002. We were diverted by Iraq, and we basically neglected Afghanistan for several years," he said in response to a question. He said at the end of December 2006 when took over the top post at the Pentagon, 194 Americans had been killed in five years of warfare. "That is the level of conflict that we were engaged in. So I understand we have been at war for 10 years, but we have not been at war full scale in Afghanistan, except since last summer," Gates underlined. He said the objective in both of these wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) has been to end them on terms that enhance the United States' security, uphold America's prestige and reputation, and advance US interests. "If we can accomplish that, then bringing them to a close as quickly as possible, I think, is the right thing to do," he said. |
| Defiant Gaddafi vows to defeat Nato Posted: 19 Jun 2011 10:22 AM PDT 
Hours after loud blasts shook Libya's capital Tripoli, Muammar Gaddafi vowed to defeat Nato as his forces launched a deadly rocket assault on rebel-held Misrata. "Nato is bound to be defeated," Gaddafi said in the speech broadcast on loudspeakers in Tripoli's Green Square as thousands of flag-waving regime supporters staged their biggest rally in weeks. "We are determined to change nothing in our country other than by our own free will... We are resisting, we are fighting," he declared. Meanwhile, the Libyan government dismissed rebel denials that the two sides have been holding talks. Addressing a news conference in Tripoli just hours after loud explosions again rocked the Libyan capital, Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi accused Nato of committing "war crimes and crimes against humanity" by "directly targeting civilian sites" with air raids over the past three days. "Ask the Egyptians, French, Norwegians and Tunisians for information. They will tell you the truth," Baghdadi said. "We are sure of our meetings and everything has been recorded." Speaking earlier on Friday a day after visiting Tripoli, Margelov said that the Libyan government had forged multiple contacts with the Libyan opposition in foreign capitals including Berlin, Paris and Oslo. The claim has been repeatedly denied by the rebels National Transitional Council. At least five further explosions were heard early yesterday in and around the capital, an AFP journalist reported. In the western rebel enclave of Misrata, 10 people were killed and 40 wounded when Gaddafi loyalists fired a volley of Grad rockets at the lifeline port city, rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan told AFP. |
| Australian PM slides in polls Posted: 19 Jun 2011 10:21 AM PDT 
Australian leader Julia Gillard said she felt "very secure" and vowed to stay the course yesterday, after an unprecedented slump in the polls and a surge in support for axed prime minister Kevin Rudd. The latest Nielsen poll, published in Fairfax newspapers yesterday, put support for Gillard's ruling Labor party at 27 percent, the lowest primary vote for a major party in the poll's 39-year history. Tony Abbott's conservative Liberal party enjoyed 49 percent, according to the survey of 1,400 Australians, rising to 59 percent with smaller party preferences against Gillard's 41 percent |
| Obama, Boehner team up in golf match Posted: 19 Jun 2011 08:51 AM PDT 
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner teamed up in a golf match on Saturday to try to build a friendlier climate for troubled talks on the debt and deficits. In a game won on the 18th hole, Obama, a Democrat, and Boehner beat Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich on a course at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, just outside Washington. The four hit the links as Democrats and Republicans were at odds over ways to cut the U.S. budget by trillions and to raise the $14.3 trillion ceiling on the nation's debt. Since May, Biden has been leading talks with a group of lawmakers. Without a deal to allow the nation to issue more debt, the Treasury Department has warned the government will begin defaulting on obligations on August 2. Kasich, a former congressman, is an expert on federal financial matters and a friend of the speaker. |
