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Senate committee approves Gates nomination
CNN ^ | 12/05/06

Posted on 12/05/2006 2:26:08 PM PST by TexKat

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously approved President Bush's defense secretary nomination Tuesday and sent it to the full Senate for approval, the committee's outgoing chairman said.

Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, announced the committee's 21-0 decision after a closed session.

Robert Gates testified before the committee for hours Tuesday, telling members that the United States was not winning the war in Iraq, and that the U.S. course there "over the next year or two" would shape the entire Middle East.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Robert Gates gave no timeline for ending the conflict in Iraq, but he repeatedly referenced "the next year or two" when discussing U.S. options in the war-torn nation.

"Our course over the next year or two will determine whether the American and Iraqi people and the next president of the United States will face a slowly but steadily improving situation in Iraq and in the region or will face the very real risk and possible reality of a regional conflagration," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: confirmed; robertgates
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1 posted on 12/05/2006 2:26:11 PM PST by TexKat
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To: SunkenCiv; Dog; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ARealMothersSonForever

BREAKING NEWS: Defense nominee wins unanimous support ping.


2 posted on 12/05/2006 2:29:00 PM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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Confirmation hearing for new defense secretary

(Washington, D.C. - AP, December 5, 2006) - Robert Gates, the White House choice to be the new defense secretary, conceded Tuesday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and warned that if that country is not stabilized it could lead to a "regional conflagration."

At a Senate confirmation hearing that was long on praise for Gates and short on criticism, the man President Bush picked to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld said he is open to new ideas about correcting the U.S. course in Iraq. He said the war would be his highest priority if confirmed as expected.
It appeared likely that Gates would win Senate confirmation by the end of the week.

If confirmed, he said, he planned to visit U.S. commanders and troops in Iraq "quite soon."

After about five hours of public questioning, senators went into private session to go over classified matters with Gates.

Gates, 63, said he believes Bush wants to see Iraq improve to the point where it can govern and defend itself and that may require a new approach. "What we are now doing is not satisfactory," Gates said.

"In my view, all options are on the table, in terms of how we address this problem in Iraq," he said. He did not commit to any specific new course, saying he would consult first with commanders and others.

Asked directly by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., whether the U.S. is winning in Iraq, Gates replied, "No, sir." He later said he believes the United States is neither winning nor losing "at this point."

At the outset of an afternoon session of questions about Iraq and other subjects, Gates began by telling the committee he wanted to amplify on his remark about not winning in Iraq. He did not withdraw the remark but said, "I want to make clear that that pertains to the situation in Iraq as a whole."

He said he did not want U.S. troops to think he believes they are being unsuccessful in their assigned missions.

"Our military wins the battles that we fight," Gates said. "Where we're having our challenges, frankly, are in the areas of stabilization and political developments and so on."

At the White House, press secretary Tony Snow was pressed by reporters about Gates' answer that the U.S. is not winning in Iraq - one that seemed to be in conflict with the president's own position.

Snow said that Gates' testimony, taken in its entirety, shows he shares Bush's view that the U.S. must help Iraq govern and defend itself.

"I know you want to pit a fight between Bob Gates and the president, it doesn't exist," Snow told reporters.

The spokesman rejected any notion that Gates' assessment of the war would be demoralizing to U.S. troops. "What I think is demoralizing is a constant effort to try to portray this as a losing mission," Snow said.

Gates was noncommittal on questions about whether and when to begin a U.S. troop withdrawal, saying it "depends on the conditions on the ground." He also said that if confirmed he would go to Iraq soon to consult with U.S. commanders.

Asked later whether announcing a specific troop withdrawal timetable would send a signal of U.S. weakness, Gates said it "would essentially tell (the insurgents) how long they have to wait until we're gone."

The hearing was nonconfrontational, with occasional hints of humor from Gates. Much of the questioning from panel members was focused on whether Gates would provide independent advice to Bush, and the former CIA director assured the committee that he would not shirk from that duty.

He said he did not give up his position as president of Texas A&M University and return to Washington to "be a bump on a log."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a likely 2008 presidential candidate and an advocate of increasing U.S. troop strength in Iraq, asked whether Gates believes the U.S. had too few troops at the outset of the war in 2003.

"I suspect in hindsight some of the folks in the administration would not make the same decisions they made," including the number of troops in Iraq to establish control after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, Gates said.

He also told Levin he believes a political solution in Iraq is required to end the violence.

The confirmation hearing came amid intensifying pressure for a new approach, reflecting the outcome of the Nov. 7 elections that put Democrats back in control of both houses of Congress.

U.S. deaths in Iraq have topped 2,900, and questions persist about whether Iraq will devolve into all-out civil war.

"Our course over the next year or two will determine whether the American and Iraqi people and the next president of the United States will face a slowly but steadily improving situation in Iraq and in the region or will face the very real risk, and possible reality, of a regional conflagration," Gates said.

Bush has repeatedly rejected the idea of a quick U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and said he wants to keep U.S. forces there until Iraq is able to govern and defend itself without being a haven for terrorists.

"It seems to me that the United States is going to have to have some kind of presence in Iraq for a long time ... but it could be with a dramatically smaller number of U.S. forces than are there today," Gates said.

Meanwhile, Bush had an in-person preview of a prestigious blue-ribbon panel's recommendations for a new way forward in Iraq. Talking to reporters, Snow said that commission chairman James A. Baker III mere gave a glancing briefing and did not leave the report behind.

Gates, who served on the commission until his nomination was announced by Bush on Nov. 8, said he did not know what the panel would recommend.

"It's my impression that frankly there are no new ideas on Iraq," he said.

Gates said at one point that "long-term stability in Iraq will be influenced by Syria and Iran and said the U.S. government should "look at ways to bring them to be constructive. How we do that, I don't have any specific ideas at this point."

Of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, he said: "The way we'll catch bin Laden eventually, in my view, is that just as in the case of Saddam Hussein, one of his people will turn him in."

An issue that dogged Gates during his final years at the CIA - the Iran-Contra affair - arose at Tuesday's hearing only after about four hours on other matters. Levin, who was among 31 senators who voted against Gates to become CIA chief in 1991, raised it.

During his CIA confirmation hearing in 1991, Gates faced doubts that he had told all he knew about the 1986 affair, in which the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran in hopes of freeing hostages in Lebanon, then used profits from the sales to help the Contra rebels in Nicaragua against congressional orders.

Levin noted the doubts about the reliability of Gates' memory on this issue, but he also said it was important to know that the independent counsel who investigated Iran-Contra is now supporting Gates' nomination.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=nation_world&id=4826007


3 posted on 12/05/2006 2:30:33 PM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: TexKat

I know nothing about this guy. I'm sure I'll know plenty by the end of this thread. :)


4 posted on 12/05/2006 2:30:43 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: TexKat

"Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, announced the committee's 21-0 decision after a closed session."


21-0? ALL of the Dims on that committee voted for him? This is not a good sign.


5 posted on 12/05/2006 2:31:32 PM PST by FarRightFanatic
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To: kinoxi
Your honesty is refreshing! :)

Washington could use some, too! :(

6 posted on 12/05/2006 2:33:55 PM PST by DTogo (I haven't left the GOP, the GOP left me.)
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To: FarRightFanatic
21-0? ALL of the Dims on that committee voted for him? This is not a good sign.

That our incoming SecDef is an Aggie (ok, Pres. of Aggieland), is cause for concern.

7 posted on 12/05/2006 2:33:56 PM PST by Night Hides Not
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To: FarRightFanatic

"ALL of the Dims on that committee voted for him? This is not a good sign."

No, on the surface it is not. Here's hoping I learn different.


8 posted on 12/05/2006 2:34:21 PM PST by L98Fiero (The media as a self-licking ice-cream cone)
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To: Night Hides Not

How long until the Dims demand he resign?

I give it 3 weeks.


9 posted on 12/05/2006 2:35:11 PM PST by Democratshavenobrains
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To: TexKat

I'm not surprised he received the Dem/Rep nod. The question remains: Can he do the job?

I doubt it, yet we will see in the future as to the end result while the Whitehouse uses his "knowledge."

SS


10 posted on 12/05/2006 2:35:26 PM PST by Sword_Svalbardt (Sword Svalbardt)
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To: kinoxi
Gates Before the Senate: Welcome Candor on Iraq - TIME

It didn't take long, at his confirmation hearings for Defense Secretary, for Robert Gates to give Senate Democrats some answers they've been desperate for

more...

11 posted on 12/05/2006 2:36:52 PM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: Night Hides Not

Of course the Democratic Traitors would vote for Gates after he claimed that the United States was losing the War in Iraq.


12 posted on 12/05/2006 2:45:39 PM PST by trumandogz (Rudy G 2008: The "G" Stands For Gun Grabbing & Gay Lovin.)
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To: TexKat
Well sure... I mean he agrees with the dems that we aren't winning anything over there. That we shouldn't attack Iran or Syria, and that we don't have the authority to do so if we wanted to anyway.

So instead of THE MAN - Rummy, up there -- we get THIS.
13 posted on 12/05/2006 2:48:15 PM PST by FreedomNeocon (Success is not final; Failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts -- Churchill)
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To: TexKat
I hope he is telling the demwits what they want to hear.
14 posted on 12/05/2006 2:48:57 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: kinoxi

Each one of the Democratic Senators who voted for Gates after he said that the US was losing the War should lose their jobs.


15 posted on 12/05/2006 2:50:17 PM PST by trumandogz (Rudy G 2008: The "G" Stands For Gun Grabbing & Gay Lovin.)
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To: FarRightFanatic
Well, he did kiss royal MSM/DNC arse for good press and votes.
16 posted on 12/05/2006 2:51:32 PM PST by roses of sharon
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Meanwhile in Iraq:

In this photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister Press Office, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki holds a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2006. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Tuesday that his government will send envoys to neighboring countries to pave the way for a regional conference on ending the rampant violence in his country. (AP Photo/Iraq Prime Minister Office)

Al-Maliki to call for regional meeting

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister reversed course Tuesday and said his envoys will talk with Iraq's neighbors about the possibility of a regional conference on quelling the violence here, despite opposition to the plan by some key political allies.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made the announcement as more than 100 people were killed or found dead in and around Baghdad, underscoring the urgency of finding a solution to the bloodshed.

The U.S. military said three more American troops had died Monday — two as a result of insurgent attacks and one in a traffic accident.

Despite a string of ambushes, mortar attacks and bombings Tuesday, the chief U.S. military spokesman told reporters that all of Iraq would be under Baghdad's control by the fall of 2007, with U.S. soldiers and Marines and other coalition forces playing a supporting role.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, told reporters that his envoys would talk with other governments in the region, most of them Sunni-dominated, about how they might help establish security and stability in Iraq.

"After the political climate is cleared, we will call for the convening of a regional conference in which these countries that are keen on the stability and security of Iraq will participate," al-Maliki said.

The prime minister's statement fell short of an unconditional call for a conference. Previously, Iraqi leaders have resisted suggestions they include outsiders in efforts to settle their bitter internal divisions.

In recent days, President Jalal Talabani and a leading Shiite politician, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, have rejected U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposal for a regional peace conference. Annan said such a gathering could be useful if the parties met outside Iraq.

Al-Maliki, though, said any conference should take place in Iraq. Any proposals to emerge, he added, should conform to "what the national unity government wants."

The Bush administration welcomed the announcement. "It's a good idea for the Iraqis to be involved in working with their neighbors on issues of regional security," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.

At al-Maliki's press conference in Baghdad, the Iraqi leader said a frequently delayed national reconciliation conference would convene this month. He also said he planned to reshuffle his six-month-old Cabinet, to increase its "effectiveness and strength," but offered no further details.

Al-Maliki's hedged endorsement of a regional peace conference came one day before the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, is to release recommendations on changing U.S. strategy in Iraq.

The group is expected to suggest that Iraq's neighbors, including longtime U.S. adversaries Iran and Syria, be invited to help in the search for an end to the violence. Al-Maliki did not say whether his envoys would visit those countries.

Al-Maliki was careful not to commit himself unequivocally to a regional conference, perhaps due to opposition to the proposal among his allies.

But the prime minister may feel he cannot reject such a call outright. Instead, his conditions appeared aimed at limiting the scope of the conference, raising the possibility it may not take place soon.

Arab countries like Egypt generally favor such a conference, in part because they increasingly fear the rise of Shiite power in Iraq and the possible growing influence of predominantly Shiite Iran.

But Iraq's Shiites, who dominate the government, fear Sunni-dominated countries will pressure Baghdad to make concessions to Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, which launched the insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition three years ago.

At any regional peace conference, both Iran and Syria would most likely try to increase their influence in Iraq.

The U.S. maintains about 140,000 troops in Iraq and is considering changing its strategic course in the country.

Robert Gates, the White House choice to be the next defense secretary, conceded during his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq. If the country is not stabilized in the next year or two, he warned, it could lead to a "regional conflagration."

He later said he believes the U.S. is neither winning nor losing, "at this point."

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters that efforts to transfer security responsibility to the Iraqi military were moving forward. He predicted the entire country would be under the control of Iraqi police and military by the fall of next year.

"We would expect to see the entire country having reached provincial Iraqi control by early fall of next year," Caldwell said. "We should see the complete transfer of command and control of all Iraqi army divisions by late spring, early summer."

The planned transfer of authority, he said, was part of an accelerated timetable discussed by President Bush and al-Maliki last week in Jordan.

Meanwhile, violence persisted unabated.

Suspected Sunni extremists killed 15 Shiite government workers in an attack on their minibus in Baghdad, the government said. Gunmen halted the vehicle and executed several passengers, who were on their way to work at the Shiite Endowment, a government ministry that acts as caretaker for Shiite mosques.

Fifteen other people were killed near a gasoline station when two car bombs exploded in the capital, police said. And at least 15 died in shootings, bombings and a mortar attack in and around Baghdad. Four bodies were pulled from the Tigris River south of the capital.

Police discovered the tortured bodies of 60 people who had been bound, blindfolded, then shot and left in Baghdad over the past 24 hours, Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said.

An American soldier was killed Monday when attackers fired on a U.S. patrol in northeastern Baghdad, the U.S. command said. Also Monday, a soldier died of wounds suffered in a blast in Diyala province and another soldier died in a traffic accident.

The deaths raised to at least 2,905 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

___

AP writers Hamza Hendawi and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report from Baghdad.

17 posted on 12/05/2006 2:51:59 PM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: FreedomNeocon

Rumsfeld's 'in denial,' ex-aide sez

WASHINGTON - A longtime adviser to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed yesterday that his former boss is "in denial" about Iraq and will end his Pentagon tenure as a failure.
"I think his failures are quite glaring, almost blinding right now," Kenneth Adelman told "CBS Evening News" in an interview aired last night.

Adelman, who famously predicted before the 2003 invasion that the war would be "a cakewalk," said Rumsfeld has presided over an inexplicable series of missteps that have crippled the war effort.

"I mean, you go on and the litany just breaks your heart," said Adelman, who has been declared persona non grata by Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney, another longtime friend.

"There was incompetence ... you look at the evidence: there's no other conclusion that you can make."

Adelman, a prominent member of the Washington Republican establishment, said Rumsfeld consistently refused to listen to bad news about Iraq.

"He said, 'This war will never be lost in Baghdad, it will only be lost in America,'" Adelman said. "And I tried to butt in and say 'It is being lost in Iraq. What are you talking about?'... And he said, 'Excuse me,' and just went on."


Thomas M. DeFrank


Originally published on December 5, 2006

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/477189p-401485c.html


18 posted on 12/05/2006 2:53:57 PM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: TexKat

God Speed Rummy, you will be missed.


19 posted on 12/05/2006 2:54:07 PM PST by mystery-ak (My Son, My Soldier, My Hero........God Speed Jonathan......)
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To: trumandogz

Yes, the MSM/DNC do love to grovel out loud before the enemy don't they?



20 posted on 12/05/2006 2:54:53 PM PST by roses of sharon
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