Defense nominee acknowledges problems in Iraq

Defense Secretary-nominee Robert Gates acknowledged on Tuesday that the United States is not winning in Iraq and assured lawmakers he would weigh all options before crafting a new strategy to guide U.S. involvement in the increasingly chaotic, violence-prone country.

Speaking at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates said President Bush nominated him last month to succeed outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld because he could take a fresh look at the situation on the ground in Iraq.

"I am under no illusion [about] why I am sitting in front of you today: the war in Iraq," said Gates, a former CIA director who most recently has been president of Texas A&M University.

When Senate Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich., who will become chairman next month, asked if the United States is winning in Iraq, Gates answered bluntly, "No, sir." But he also said later he does not believe the United States is losing.

The White House on Tuesday suggested there was little difference between Gates' acknowledgement that the United States is not winning the war and a contention by President Bush -- made during a White House news conference just days before the election -- that the United States is winning.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow suggested that the overall view of the situation in Iraq by Bush and his Defense nominee was the same, and that the two may be operating under a different definition of the word "winning." Snow said that he "did not ask [Bush] the question today" about whether the United States was winning, but said he had no reason to believe Bush's view had changed since his October news conference.

During his testimony, Gates did nothing to derail his likely confirmation in the Senate, which is expected Thursday. Indeed, Gates alluded to the combative relationships Rumsfeld has had with lawmakers and senior military officers by assuring the committee he would work with Congress and consult its members.

"If confirmed, I will seek your counsel and take it seriously," he said. And he pledged to go to Iraq as one of his first orders of business as Defense secretary to meet with military commanders on the ground. Gates also pledged to be an active and independent secretary who would speak his mind to Congress and the White House. "I can assure you, I don't owe anybody anything," he said.

Meanwhile, Gates said he would try to find a bipartisan consensus on any Iraq strategy, largely to ensure consistency after the 2008 presidential elections. And Gates, a former member of the Iraq Study Group, a blue-ribbon panel created by Congress to review U.S. policy options in Iraq, said he would weigh its recommendations, due to be released Wednesday, as well as a Joint Chiefs of Staff review and other studies before determining the future U.S. course in Iraq.

But he warned about leaving Iraq before the country has a stable government and a trained military. Leaving Iraq in "chaos" ultimately would lead to a regional conflict and a less secure Middle East, he asserted.