Washington – Robert Gates, President Bush’s choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary, may bring more of a change in style than substance to the Pentagon and the fractious debate over Iraq, judging from his statements and the assessment of associates.
“He stands his ground on argument and data and facts, but he does not have a confrontational personality like Rumsfeld does,” said Fritz Ermarth, a former CIA official who worked with Gates at the spy agency over a 20-year period.
Bush announced Nov. 8, one day after voters thrust Democrats back in control of the House and Senate, that he decided Gates should succeed Rumsfeld to provide “fresh perspective” on the war.
Like Rumsfeld, Gates sees timely intelligence as central to winning the fight against terrorism, favors pushing NATO allies to spend more on defense and views with suspicion China’s military buildup. Unlike Rumsfeld, Gates has no prior Pentagon experience; Rumsfeld was defense secretary in the mid- 1970s.
At his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Gates is expected to be questioned in detail on the Iraq war. In written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in advance of his hearing, Gates said he supported Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 and indicated that, if confirmed, he would oppose the quick exit some Democrats are pushing.
“I believe that leaving Iraq in chaos would have dangerous consequences both in the region and globally for many years to come,” he wrote.
In hindsight, he added, he might have done some things differently in Iraq. Gates mentioned improving the Pentagon’s planning for managing the immediate aftermath of major combat – a reference to the chaos that engulfed the country once Baghdad fell.
Like Rumsfeld, Gates believes there is no purely military solution in Iraq. He sees the U.S. military role as crucial but in combination with political efforts by the U.S. and other countries.
Gates will do a better job on Iraq, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, “because he has a chance to start over with the American public.”
“He’s not a stakeholder in past mistakes as Secretary Rumsfeld was,” Graham said. “He has a chance to re-engage. I intend to vote for him unless he convinces me that he will not support a strategy to win. I’m looking for strategies to win, not political strategies.”
Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who appeared with Graham, R-S.C., on “Fox News Sunday,” said he thinks Gates’ position on Iraq “is much closer to what we need to move to.”
“I will vote for Gates, and I believe Gates will be able to do a good job,” Biden said.
Gates served on the bipartisan Iraq Study Group that is set to present recommendations Wed nesday to Bush and Congress on the way forward in a war that has dragged on far longer – at far greater cost – than the administration foresaw. Gates quit the commission when Bush announced his Pentagon nomination.
“His style is different, and I welcome it,” said John Deutch, a former CIA director and former deputy secretary of defense who has known Gates for two decades.
Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon policy official and former political adviser to the U.S. occupation authority in Baghdad, said Gates “will more likely bring a change of style rather than perspective to the Pentagon.”
Rubin added, “Unless Gates can get ahead of the curve, any fresh perspective will be buried under a to-do list thicker than the Yellow Pages.”
No senator has indicated opposition to Gates’ nomination.
