Gates: Taliban Is Gaining

Better get moving: Defense Secretary Robert Gates tells The Wall Street Journal that, without “a perceptible shift in momentum,” American public support for the war in Afghanistan will have dried up within a year. He also said that momentum is with the Taliban. In order to turn the tide, he has signed off on the deployment of 21,000 new troops to Afghanistan and fired the four-star general who was in command there. He also accused those who oppose Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo Bay of “fear mongering,” saying “If people begin to absorb the fact that we've got several dozen very dangerous terrorists in our jails right now...maybe a little greater perspective would be brought to the issue.”