WASHINGTON, Dec 18: Former CIA director Robert Gates was sworn in as US defence secretary on Monday giving new leadership to a military strained by war and faced with critical decisions on a faltering mission in Iraq.
Mr Gates, 63, who took the oath of office at the White House early yesterday morning, replaces Donald Rumsfeld, the architect of the Iraq invasion who resigned under fire after nearly six years at the helm of the Pentagon.
In his confirmation hearings earlier this month, Mr Gates said the United States was not winning in Iraq, but withheld his own views of what course to take until he met military commanders.
“It’s my impression that, frankly, there are no new ideas on Iraq,” he said. “The list of tactics, the list of strategies, the list of approaches, is pretty much out there.
“And the question is: Is there a way to put pieces of those different proposals together in a way that provides a path forward?” Gates is a former member of a blue ribbon panel that recommended the withdrawal of most US combat forces by early 2008 as security responsibilities are rapidly shifted to Iraqis assisted by US advisers.
After being tapped to replace Mr Rumsfeld, Robert Gates dropped out of the group led by former secretary of state James Baker and former representative Lee Hamilton, and did not join in its recommendations.
But he appears to share the group’s view that the situation in Iraq is `grave and deteriorating’, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that he worried that Iraq could ignite `a regional conflagration’.
He said he expected the administration to move with `considerable urgency’ and said one of the first things he will do is to go to Iraq and consult US commanders.
Debate currently is raging over whether an additional 30,000 US troops should be deployed to Iraq in a new push to get sectarian violence under control as responsibility for security is handed over to Iraqis.
Mr Gates said wanted to ask commanders whether they had enough troops, and what US forces would do if the situation breaks down into all-out civil war.
US force levels have dipped down to 129,000 over the past week but they have generally hovered around 140,000.
Plummeting public support for the war at home has spurred a major strategy review by Bush, who announced Rumsfeld's resignation the day after a crushing Republican defeat in mid-term elections.—AFP
