Gates: Failure in Iraq Will Haunt U.S.

(12-18) 23:58 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- On his first day as defense secretary, Robert Gates warned Monday that failure in Iraq would be a "calamity" that would haunt the United States for years. Underscoring eroding security there, a Pentagon report said the number of insurgent and sectarian attacks had risen to the highest level in years.

Sworn into office as the Bush administration moves toward revamping its strategy in Iraq, Gates sketched out an agenda of reversing the downward spiral in Iraq, attending to resurgent violence in Afghanistan and pushing for the military modernization that was a priority of his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Gates said he intends to travel soon to Iraq to hear commanders' assessments of the situation on the ground and to gain their advice — "unvarnished and straight from the shoulder" — on how to adjust U.S. war strategy. He said he would give President Bush honest advice and listen to military commanders — a contrast to critics' complaints that Rumsfeld was an ideologue who paid scant heed to top officers.

"All of us want to find a way to bring America's sons and daughters home again," Gates told a few hundred people in a Pentagon auditorium, including Bush, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gates' wife and mother. Rumsfeld, who handed off his authority earlier Monday in a private event, did not attend the ceremony.

"As the president has made clear," Gates said, "we simply cannot afford to fail in the Middle East. Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for decades to come."

Read the rest at the SF Chronicle

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