IRAQ - Gates: 'US Is Not Winning Iraq'.

Robert Gates, the White House choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary, on Dec. 5 acknowledged the US was not winning the war in Iraq. Asked at his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee whether the US was winning the war, Gates responded: "No Sir".

Following the hearing - notable for the lack of acrimony that was present when Rumsfeld testified - the committee voted unanimously to approve sending his nomination to the full Senate for final approval. Gates later clarified that his remarks did not mean he thought the US was losing in Iraq. But his blunt assessment was at odds with an October statement by President George W. Bush that the US was "absolutely...winning".

Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who will chair the Armed Services Committee from January, praised Gates, saying his acknowledgement that the US was not winning in Iraq was "a necessary, refreshing breath of reality that is so needed if we're going to look at ways of changing course in Iraq to maximise the chances of success". Gates said he was open to a "wide range" of ideas for US policy on Iraq. But the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - who himself was an ISG member until being nominated to replace the controversial Donald Rumsfeld - said he did not believe the group's recommendations would be the "last word", adding: "It's my impression that...there are no new ideas on Iraq. The list of tactics, the list of strategies, the list of approaches, is pretty much out there. And the question is: is there a way to put pieces of those different proposals together in a way that provides a path forward?"

Gates said the next two years in Iraq would be crucial in determining whether the US could help the country stabilise itself. He said: "Our course over the next year or two will determine whether American and Iraqi people and the next president of the US 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 was outspoken on Iran, saying he would only advise an attack on the country as an "absolute last resort", adding: "We have seen in Iraq that once war is unleashed, it becomes unpredictable. And I think that the consequences of a military conflict with Iran could be quite dramatic". Gates said he did not support an attack on Syria, which, along with Iran, the US has accused of meddling in Iraq. He added that an attack on either country would likely worsen the violence in Iraq. His reservations on military action against Iran were a shot across the bows of weakened but still influential neo-conservatives in Washington who have called for strikes against the Islamic republic's nuclear facilities. Glen Howard, president of the Jamestown Foundation, a security think-tank, said: "The neo-cons are regrouping around the Iran threat". Analysts said Gates was believed to have supported the expected ISG recommendation for the US to engage with Iran and Syria to try to help end the Iraq war.