New Pentagon boss Gates visits Baghdad
Source: Reuters
(Adds Pace travelling with Gates, Najaf handover) By Kristin Roberts BAGHDAD, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Robert Gates made his first visit to Baghdad as U.S. defence secretary on Wednesday to chart a fresh strategy in a war President George W. Bush has now said America is not winning. "The whole purpose is to go out, listen to the commanders, talk to the Iraqis and see what I can learn," Gates, sworn into office two days ago, told reporters on the way to Baghdad. Gates and General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were scheduled to meet American commanders and Iraqi political leaders, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The former CIA director's visit follows a Pentagon report that said violence in Iraq was at an all-time high. Bush is expected to announce a new U.S. strategy early in the new year for a war in which nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers have died since the 2003 invasion. In a turnaround from past upbeat assessments on the Iraq war, Bush told the Washington Post in an interview posted on the newspaper's Web site: "We're not winning, we're not losing." He is facing mounting pressure to reduce America's military commitment in Iraq but has also said he wants to expand the overall size of the U.S. armed forces. He is weighing a short-term U.S. troop increase in Iraq as one of a number of options, the White House said on Tuesday. Gates, who replaced Donald Rumsfeld, said on Monday failure in Iraq "would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for decades to come". "All of us want to find a way to bring America's sons and daughters home again. But, as the president has made clear, we simply cannot afford to fail in the Middle East," he said. A member of the Iraqi Study Group that recommended Bush speed up the training of Iraqi security forces, Gates has given little indication of which military options he favours. He has stressed a need to gather "unvarnished" advice from commanders. NAJAF HANDOVER More than 3-1/2 years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, Iraq is gripped by soaring violence between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunnis. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the invasion. Shortly before Gates arrived, a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into an Iraqi police checkpoint near Baghdad University, killing 11 people and wounding 31, security sources said. South of the capital, U.S.-led troops handed over command of Najaf province, home to Iraq's Shi'ite clerical establishment, to Iraqi security forces under a plan to gradually transfer security and allow the withdrawal of 130,000 American troops. Maliki has said Iraqis can take over security of all the country's 18 provinces by June despite doubts about the capabilities and the sectarian loyalties of the army and police. Bush has been seeking advice about a new plan for Iraq from military officials, the State Department and others in and out of government. Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, in New York for talks with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said he favoured a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, but they should not leave until Iraqi forces were more capable. He said the priority for Iraq was not a U.S. pullout but ensuring stability and security and ending the violence that has been tearing apart the country. (Additional reporting by Aseel Kami in Baghdad and Claudia Parsons in Najaf)
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