Gates and Byrd on Iran and Syria

Down the road of appeasement! The Mullahs will be setting things in order to move up their plans to attack. This opens the door for them because we will do nothing to stop them.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006 Gates and Byrd on Iran and Syria
Posted by Hugh Hewitt | 7:28 PM
The most important exchanges from the Gates confirmation hearings today came when Senator Robert Byrd questioned the Secretary-designate on Iran and Syria. Not only did Mr. Gates answer Senator Byrd's hypotheticals in ways that had to encourage the mullahs of Iran and the thugs of Syria, he did so in addition to questioning the president's authority under the AUMF to pursue any terrorists operating out of Iranian or Syria:
Senator Byrd: Do you support, I hear all these rumors about the potential for an attack on Iran due to its nuclear weapons program, or on Syria due to its support of terrorism. Do you support an attack on Iran?
Mr. Gates: Senator Byrd I think that military action against Iran would be an absolute last resort, that any problems that we have with Iran, our first options should be diplomacy and working with our allies to try and deal with the problems that iran is posing to us. I think that we have seen in Iraq that once war is unleashed it becomes unpredictable, and I think that the consequences of a conflict, a military conflict with Iran, could be quite dramatic and therefore I would counsel against military action except as a last resort and if we felt that our vital interests were threatened.
Senator Byrd: Do you support an attack on Syria?
Mr. Gates: No sir I do not.
Senator Byrd: Do you believe that the president has the authority under either the 9/11 war resolution or the Iraq war resolution to attack Iran or to attack Syria?
Mr. Gates: To the best of my knowledge, both of those authorizations, I don't believe so.
Senator Byrd: Would you briefly describe your view of the likely consequences of a US attack on Iran?
Mr. Gates: It is always awkward to talk about hypotheticals in this case, but I think that while Iran cannot attack us directly militarily, I think that their capacity to potentially close off the Persian Gulf to all exports of oil, their potential to unleash a significant wave of terror both in , ah, in the Middle East and in Europe, and even here in this country is very real. They are certainly not being helpful in Iraq, and are doing us, doing damage to our interests there, but I think that they could do a lot more to hurt our effort in Iraq. I think that they could provide certain kinds of weapons of mass destruction, particularly chemical and biological weapons to terrorist groups. Their ability to get Hezbolah to further destabilize Lebanon is very real. So I think while their ability to retaliate in a conventional military way is quite limited, they have the capacity to do all of things and perhaps more that I just described.
Senator Byrd: What about an attack on Syria? Would you briefly describe your view of the likely consequences of a US attack on Syria?
Mr. Gates: I think the Syrian capacity to do harm to us is far more limited than that of Iran, but I believe that a military attack by US on Syria would have dramatic consequences for us throughout the middle east in terms of our relationships with a wide range of countries in that area. I think that it would give rise to significantly greater anti-Americanism than we have seen to date. I think that it would immensely complicate our relationships with virtually every country in the region.
Senator Byrd: Would you say that an attack on either Iran or Syria would worsen the violence in iraq and lead to greater American casualties?
Mr. Gates: Yes sir. I think that is very likely.
Senator Byrd: Your answer is yes on both questions?
Mr. Gates: Yes sir, very likely.
I cannot imagine any set of questions and answers between a United States senator and a nominee to head DoD that would cause more relief in Tehran and Damascus than these, or conversely, more concern in Israel or among democratic forces in Lebanon.
I also think that Mr. Gates crediting Iran's terror operations with the ability to deter our action only encourages similar regimes to seek similar capacities.

http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/