Manhattan ? From troops at war to K-State veterinary professors mentoring Afghanis, Defense Secretary Robert Gates lauded the efforts of the military and civilian sectors at the Landon Lecture at Kansas State University today.

He hearkened back to the Cold and Vietnam wars, while emphasizing the point of world responsibility to students, educators, politicians, military leaders and troops.

A topic on everyone’s mind, Iraq, was addressed broadly at first.

“Looking around the world today, optimism and idealism would not seem to have much of a place at the table,” Gates said. “There is no shortage of anxiety about where our nation is headed and what its role will be in the 21st Century.”

Then came a question about a timetable for withdrawal.

Troops are beginning to come out of Iraq, Gates said. The first units were pulled out in September. Another brigade combat team is coming home in December, with others to follow.

“Soldiers want to come home, but they also don’t want their sacrifices and their efforts to be in vain, and they also don’t want their sons to go back in 10 years,” Gates said.

To date, about 30,000 have been injured and 3,874 have been killed in Iraq. Gates added the death or injury of even one American soldier in Iraq is tragic.

But the war continues, and it will until all the pieces of the complicated puzzle fall into place.

Gates said for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to be successful, the government must “focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of the military.”

He hopes for “wise and focused bipartisan leadership and political will,” he said.

Over the last century, many Americans have averted their eyes that what happens overseas; he said that must end.

A world power like the U.S. must take responsibility for acts and for not acting, he said.

“Let us never forget our nation remains a beacon of light for those in dark places,” he said. “And that our responsibilities to the world – freedom, liberty for the oppressed everywhere – are not a burden on the people, on the soul of this nation, they are rather a blessing.”

He said the U.S.’s conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hampered by this country not learning from the mistakes of past wars.

War after war, the government disbanded important building blocks in national intelligence capacities, he said.

“After Sept. 11, the U.S. rearmed and strengthened our intelligence capabilities. And it is critically important to sustain those capabilities in the future,” he said.

The defense secretary also said no one agency can do it alone.

“It has taken some years for the contour lines of the international arena to become clear. What we do know is that the threats and challenges we will face abroad in the first decade of the 21st century will extend well beyond the traditional domain of any single governmental agency.”

Economic development is an important key to restoring Iraq.

He credited civilians, specifically those on provincial reconstruction teams, with making tangible and often dramatic changes in Iraq.

The Department of Defense has recently hired anthropologists and “it is having a very real impact,” Gates said.

He spoke of an Afghani village that had just been cleared of the Taliban. The anthropologists noticed there were more widows than usual. American officers began a job training program for the widows. The goal was to alleviate their sons of the weight of supporting the family and in doing so keep them from joining the insurgency.

Kansas State University has had professors on the ground in Kabul. Professors in agriculture and veterinarian sciences are working hand-in-hand with Afghanis.

Texas A&M has had faculty on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.

“I’ve been heartened by the works of individuals and groups like these, but I’m concerned that we need even more civilians involved in the effort and that our efforts must be better integrated,” Gates said.

He said new institutions were needed for 21st century problems.

He sharply criticized the nation’s lack of communication.

“It is just plain embarrassing that al Qaida is better at communicating a message on the Internet than America,” he said.

Despite the potential of people and communication, the war cannot be won without money, he said.

He noted the disparity between funding for Defense Department programs – nearly half a trillion dollars not counting Iraq and Afghanistan – and State Department programs and said Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice has requested more funding for foreign affairs. The total foreign affairs budget request for the State Department was $36 billion, Gates said.

He emphasized the need to create a core of civilians from varied backgrounds that could work closely with the Pentagon and with commanders on the ground.