Defense nominee Gates: U.S. not winning in Iraq

Robert M. Gates

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 — President Bush’s nominee to be defense secretary said today that the United States was 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 the Pentagon’s chief if he is confirmed as expected, also 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 exchanges with Senators Carl Levin of Michigan, the panel’s ranking Democrat and soon to be chairman, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona, during Mr. Gates’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Mr. Gates, do you believe that we are currently winning in Iraq?” Mr. Levin asked.

“No, sir,” Mr. Gates replied, going on to agree with the senator that a political settlement is needed to end the blood-letting, and that the United States needed to convey “a sense of urgency” to the Iraqis about reaching an accord.

Mr. Levin said Mr. Gates’s remarks amounted to a “necessary, refreshing breath of reality.”

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