Washington – President Bush replaced his embattled secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, with his father’s former CIA director, Robert Gates.
Bush hailed Gates’ “fresh perspective,” but he and Gates provided no indication of how Iraq policy would change.
Just a week earlier, Bush had said Rumsfeld was doing a “fantastic job” and should stay for the remainder of his presidency.
Asked at a White House news conference whether the message of the election was to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, Bush responded: “I’d like our troops to come home too, but I want them to come home with victory.”
He said his goal is to enable a self-sufficient Iraq to defend itself and not become a terrorist haven.
Gates, 63, has served six presidents of both parties in national security positions.
In brief comments that provided no clue about how or whether Iraq policy might change, Gates said in the Oval Office: “The United States is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are fighting against terrorism worldwide, and we face other serious challenges to peace and our security. I believe the outcome of these conflicts will shape our world for decades to come.”
Gates, who has been president of Texas A&M University since 2002, must be confirmed by the Senate.
He has served on a bipartisan commission that is slated to deliver recommendations to Bush in the coming weeks about what steps to take next in Iraq.
Bush said that “after a series of thoughtful conversations,” he and Rumsfeld “agreed that the timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon.”
The president said that while the 74-year-old Rumsfeld has been a “superb leader,” he also “appreciates the value of bringing in a fresh perspective during a critical period in this war.”
Rumsfeld will remain as secretary of defense until Gates takes over.
Rumsfeld, whose combative style was exemplified by his Oct. 26 comment that reporters questioning the Iraq policy should “back off,” summarized his six years as Bush’s Pentagon chief Wednesday by paraphrasing Winston Churchill. “I have benefitted greatly from criticism, and at no time have I suffered a lack thereof,” Rumsfeld said.
He added that the war in Iraq is “complex for people to understand” and said Bush’s leadership will be “recorded by history.”
Rumsfeld’s removal was welcomed by a number of leading Democrats and Republicans, but for strikingly different reasons.
Democrats said they hoped Rumsfeld’s departure would lead to a new Iraq policy that would include a gradual redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who called for Rumsfeld’s resignation in September 2003 during his presidential bid, said Wednesday that “the best way to honor the brave men and women of our armed forces is with a strategy for success that brings our troops home.”
But Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and 2008 presidential prospect, believed that Rumsfeld had not put enough troops in Iraq and said he hoped Gates would recognize that the U.S. troop level must be increased in order to curtail the violence.
McCain, who has been among the most supportive of Bush’s Iraq policy, has nonetheless been a harsh critic of Rumsfeld. He told reporters in Arizona on Wednesday that he lost confidence in Rumsfeld long ago, citing “a long list of misjudgments and errors that we made that has cost us enormously in American blood.”
A confirmation hearing for Gates before the Armed Services Committee would be overseen by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Levin said Wednesday that he would question Gates on his willingness to provide information about prewar intelligence and the costs of the war.
“If we are in the majority, we will have subpoena power,” Levin said in a conference call with reporters, noting that he has been waiting to receive about 50 documents that he had requested from the Bush administration about intelligence failures in Iraq.
Levin also said he would ask Gates about a Democratic proposal calling on Bush to begin a phased withdrawal from Iraq.
Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who also serves on the Armed Services Committee, said that the willingness to cooperate with investigations would be “one of the key issues” in Gate’s confirmation hearings.
“What we don’t want to see is the repetition of the Rumsfeld situation, where the relevant information was not forthcoming,” he said.
