At Hearing, Gates Says U.S. Not Winning War in Iraq
By DAVID STOUT
nytimes.com
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 — President Bush’s nominee to be Secretary of Defense said today that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq, and that an American failure there could help to ignite “a regional conflagration” in the Middle East. Robert M. Gates, who will succeed Donald H. Rumsfeld as Pentagon chief if he is confirmed as expected, told senators that the United States went to war in Iraq without enough troops, as some generals said at the outset of the conflict.
The statements about the situation in Iraq came during an exchange with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, during Mr. Gates’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“We are not winning the war in Iraq, is that correct?” Mr. McCain asked.
“That is my view, yes, senator,” Mr. Gates replied, adding shortly afterward that the United States is not losing the war either.
Mr. Gates said “there clearly were insufficient troops in Iraq after the initial invasion.” While he said that he envisions “a dramatically smaller” number of United States troops there, he said an American presence would be required “for a long time.”
Developments in Iraq “in the next year or two” will shape the future of the entire Middle East, Mr. Gates said in describing the possibility of a “regional conflagration” arising out of the Iraq bloodshed.
Mr. Gates told the senators at the outset that he is “open to a wide range of ideas and proposals” about what to do in Iraq, and that America’s overall goal should still be an Iraq that can “sustain itself, defend itself and govern itself,” the objective that President Bush has long set out.
But Mr. Gates said he believes the president “wants me to take a fresh look, and all options are on the table.” Indeed, as a member of the Iraq Study Group until he was nominated to succeed Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Gates had already been taking part in a sweeping review of the situation in Iraq.
Mr. Gates has been president of Texas A&M University, and he told the senators that he is not giving up that job, which he loves, to be anyone’s sycophant in Washington. “I don’t owe anybody anything,” he said, vowing to give not only the president but the Congress his unvarnished advice.
Mr. McCain has been among the few lawmakers who have been calling for more American troops in Iraq. Consequently, Mr. Gates’s comments about reducing American troop strength there while still working to forestall a regional catastrophe seemed likely to be a big part of the confirmation hearing, which was likely to end this afternoon.
Mr. Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, seems assured of confirmation. Even Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who opposed his confirmation as C.I.A. head 15 years ago, promised “a fresh and fair look” at Mr. Gates’s record since then.
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