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Q A quick follow-up to that. The WikiLeaks folks put out, you know, that video last week. There's apparently another video of a(n) Afghanistan incident coming out. Does the -- does the appearance of these videos -- the appearance of these videos coming late reopens these investigations in the public's mind. Is there a case to be made that, when you have a high-profile incident of civilian casualties, that the Defense Department should early on release its own gun-sight videos, bomb videos, this kind of stuff to put more information out about controversial events?
SEC. GATES: Well, I think the challenge that we face is getting all of the information. I mean, these people can put anything out they want and are never held accountable for it. There is no before and there is no after: It's only the present. And, you know, it's like -- it's a little bit like embeds, in the respect that I've always believed embedding was a great idea, in part because it allows journalists to see what our men and women in uniform do every day, to see these situations that they face where they have to make these hard calls. But the reality is, you end up looking at the war through a soda straw. And if the platoon you're with had a good day, then the war's going well, and if they had a bad day, the war's going badly. And that's the problem with these videos, is, you're looking at a situation through a soda straw and you have no context or perspective. And for us to put that together, to try and recreate all of that, is a challenge. And so I just think that, you know, we take these things seriously. I've repeated what I said about General McChrystal's attitude toward it and his very profound belief that the civilian casualties are critical in hampering our efforts in Afghanistan. And we will -- and we investigate every single one of these incidents, not only to determine whether there's accountability or what actually happened, but also to see if there are some lessons to be learned in terms of how to avoid it the next time around. |
