Gates gets syntax on the war wrong

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is no grammarian. In his statement: ``Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility, and endanger Americans for generations to come,'' (Page 1A, Dec. 20) he got both the mood and tense of the verbs wrong. He should have said: ``Failure in Iraq at this juncture is a calamity that haunts our nation, impairs our credibility and endangers Americans for generations to come.'' It is neither subjunctive nor future, it is fact and it is now.

Bryce Johnson
Saratoga

KONDRACKE: Look, there's no question about whether it's harder to run a war nowadays than it was back then, when you had censorship and generally the country was supporting it. But the idea that Iraq is the same as World War II is just not right. I mean, we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. We were attacked. And Hitler four days later declared war on the United States after he had overrun Europe. And everybody in the, or most people in the country -- by the way, Congresswoman Lagosi would have been a Republican in those days. The isolationists were mainly Republicans, not Democrats, as they are now. So, you could -- you know, there were people around who say, "Ah, Roosevelt maneuvered us into this war. He put an oil embargo on the Japanese and forced them," but the fact is that we were attacked. In this case, in the case of Iraq, this was a war of choice. This was a pre-emptive war that we decided that we were going to wage and, you know, I think -- you know, I hope we win, but the fact -- and it was popular in the beginning. But the fact is that it has not been successful, and the president is suffering for it.

BARNES: Mort, I appreciate the distinction you made between Iraq and World War II, but that wasn't the question and that wasn't the point.

KONDRACKE: I answered the question.

BARNES: No, you didn't, really.

KONDRACKE: Yeah, I did