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.”
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.