Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters after his visit with Iraqi officials that he had emphasized the US commitment to Iraq “is long-term but it is not a commitment to have our young men and women patrolling Iraq’s streets open-endedly.” Gates encouraged them—before taking a summer recess—to pass needed legislation that would “manifest the will of the entire government of Iraq to be a government for all of the people of Iraq in the future.”
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.