Arms And Arms

To me at least, the sight of Gates’s injury, although completely incidental to his testimony yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee (no pun intended), is almost painfully suggestive.

Whether addressing Obama’s intention to intensify our military involvement in Afghanistan or the more specific desire to upgrade U.S. battlefield trauma care there, the image — highlighting, more than anything else perhaps, the franker dialogue coming out of this new Administration — lends more reality to the cost to be paid.

(image: J. Scott Applewhite/A.P. – caption: Defense Secretary Robert Gates testifies about strains on the Pentagon’s budget as President Barack Obama plans to shift military resources away from Iraq and toward Afghanistan, during an a appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009. Gates, the only Cabinet holdover from the Bush Administration, is recuperating from surgery to his left arm which he injured during Christmas handling snow equipment.)