Webb Lays It On Line With Gates

Here's a nice follow-up to my article yesterday about Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) in the form of a piece of bluntness he gave to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday.

Said Webb:

"I also want to say something about my longtime friend, Senator McCain's comments when he was talking about the consequences of pulling out of Iraq and in your statement, Secretary Gates, you list some of these as an emboldened and strengthened Iran, a base of operations for jihadist networks in the heart of the Middle East, an undermining of the credibility of the United States.

"In many ways, quite frankly, those have been the results of the invasion and occupation. There's really nothing that's occurred since the invasion and occupation that was not predictable and in fact, most of it was predicted.

"It was predicted in many cases by people with long backgrounds in national security...and in many cases there were people who saw their military careers destroyed and who were personally demeaned by people who opposed them on the issues, including members of this administration. And they are people in my judgment, who will be remembered in history as having had a moral conscience."

And, being a freshman Senator in his first full week in Congress, Webb is probably holding back a little right now. Just wait until he really gets comfortable on Capitol Hill.