Gates admits U.S. not winning Iraq war

Defense Secretary nominee Robert Gates flatly admitted that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq, said he would set about conducting an immediate review of U.S. strategy - with all options on the table - and won warm praise from Democrats and Republicans alike in his testimony Wednesday to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Incoming Democratic committee chairman Carl Levin of Michigan predicted that Gates would be quickly confirmed, adding that the new Defense chief brought a "welcome breath of honest, candid realism to the situation in Iraq that has been missing" up to now from the administration.

Gates is likely to be confirmed by the Senate this week, and would replace outgoing Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a principal architect of the Iraq invasion and occupation. His testimony signals a major change in course in Iraq, though Gates was careful to point out that it is President Bush who makes all final decisions, and Bush only last week dismissed talk of a withdrawal.

Levin said he hoped Gates would add "a very important new dimension to the deliberations" on Iraq policy inside the Bush administration, and that he appeared "very independent-minded."

But while Gates said he would consider all options, from a withdrawal to adding more troops, he predicted that some U.S. military presence would be in the country for the "quite some time," although possibly far reduced from the 140,000 U.S. troops now in the country.

He freely admitted that major mistakes were made in the occupation - from disbanding the Iraqi army to the "extreme de-Baathification" program that left hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iraqi's unemployed.

But he also warned that if Iraq becomes a failed state, the vacuum could draw in neighbouring countries and touch off a very dangerous regional conflagration that could threaten oil supplies and prove difficult to contain.

Gates balked at endorsing a timetable for troop withdrawals that Levin and other Democrats demand, saying any such timetable would simply provide insurgents and sectarian militias a date certain to wait out.

Levin said he would continue nonetheless to press for a four to six month deadline to begin withdrawals, and cited Gates' agreement that Iraqis themselves must come to a political settlement before any stability can be achieved.

Gates strongly rebuffed consideration of military action against Iran or Syria, as some neoconservatives close to the administration have called for, warning that Iraq proves that wars, once started, take unpredictable turns and that Iran is capable of retaliating in many ways, including closing Persian Gulf oil shipments.

-www.sfgate.com