Incoming Pentagon chief admits US losing Iraq war
Robert Gates was put forward as the new US defence secretary last month
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Tuesday, 05, Dec 2006 11:26
The US defence secretary elect has admitted to senators that the US is losing the war in Iraq.
Robert Gates told the Senate's armed services committee that the ongoing conflict would effectively determine whether the wider Middle East faced "regional conflagration".
The former CIA director was nominated by George Bush to succeed outgoing defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld after the latter resigned in light of disastrous midterm election results for the Republican party.
At today's meeting the 21 senators on the committee unanimously approved his nomination as defence secretary, with a full senate vote expected by the end of the week.
When asked by Democrat senator Carl Levin whether the US was making progress in the armed conflict in Iraq, Mr Gates replied "no, sir".
The senator, who will be the next chairman of the committee, added that Mr Gates would face the "monumental challenge of picking up the pieces from broken policies and mistaken priorities" if confirmed in his new post.
Mr Gates' expected confirmation as US defence secretary comes as the Iraq Study Group, of which the 63-year-old was until last month a member.
The group is expected to recommend to the president that a phased-withdrawal of US troops over the next 18 months take place.
And the incoming defence secretary has insisted that all "options are on the table in terms of how we address this problem in Iraq".
"Our course over the next year or two will determine whether the American and Iraqi people and the next president of the US will face a slowly and steadily improving situation in Iraq and in the region or will face the very real risk of a regional conflagration," Mr Gates said.