Washington – Robert Gates, seemingly clinching confirmation as the new secretary of defense, said Tuesday that the United States is not winning in Iraq and he’s confident President Bush will listen to his ideas about forging a new war strategy.
He won speedy and unanimous approval from the Senate Armed Services Committee after five hours of testimony, a bipartisan show of support that suggested how eager many lawmakers are to replace Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. The full Senate could seal Gates’ confirmation as early as today.
“In my view, all options are on the table, in terms of how we address this problem in Iraq,” he told the committee. But he also acknowledged the complexity of the challenge.
“There are no new ideas on Iraq,” he said during a discussion of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which previewed its findings and recommendations to Bush on Tuesday and will release them today. Gates was a member of the group until Bush announced his nomination for the Pentagon job last month.
The senators voted 24-0 to support the nomination to replace Rumsfeld, who has become a symbol of the Bush administration’s steadfast course in a war that has long since soured with the public and much of the world.
“I voted yes because in both the substance of his answers and the tone of his answers, he seemed open to course correction,” said Carl Levin, D-Mich., who will be the committee’s chairman when Democrats take over the Senate next month.
Asked directly by Levin whether the U.S. is winning in Iraq, Gates replied, “No, sir.” That response appeared to contradict Bush, who said at an Oct. 25 news conference, “Absolutely, we’re winning.”
Gates later said he believes the United States is neither winning nor losing “at this point.”
Bush in recent weeks has expressed a willingness to consider a fresh course in the war but has shown no sign of a willingness to heed Democratic calls to start withdrawal of the 140,000 U.S. troops.
“It seems to me that the United States is going to have to have some kind of presence in Iraq for a long time … but it could be with a dramatically smaller number of U.S. forces than are there today,” Gates said.
Without mentioning Rumsfeld by name, Gates made clear that he hopes to find a strategy that is more effective in Iraq than the current approach.
Gates, a former director of the CIA, fielded questions with apparent ease, acknowledging at times that he simply did not know the answer or needed more time for study. He was armed with details, such as the exact U.S. death count in Iraq (2,889 as of Monday, he said).
There was little of the confrontational tone that sometimes emerged when the pricklier Rumsfeld testified before the same committee, which is responsible for overseeing the Defense Department.
If confirmed, Gates said, he planned to visit U.S. commanders and troops in Iraq “quite soon.”
Gates, 63, said he believes Bush wants to see Iraq improve to the point where it can govern and defend itself, while seeking a new approach. “What we are now doing is not satisfactory,” Gates said.
On other high-priority subjects, Gates said:
He worries about the prospect of growing Iranian influence in Iraq.
He would be open to the idea of direct talks with Iran and Syria about stabilizing Iraq.
He is uncertain whether the Army and Marine Corps need to expand, as many in Congress advocate.
He is “sympathetic to the notion” of adding more U.S. or allied troops in Afghanistan.
Much of the questioning from panel members focused on whether Gates was committed to providing unvarnished advice to Bush. He assured the committee he would not shirk from that duty. He said he did not give up his position as president of Texas A&M University and return to Washington to “be a bump on a log.”
