WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates acknowledged Tuesday that Pentagon planners were considering alternative war plans in case the current buildup of forces in Iraq failed to quell ongoing violence in Baghdad, saying the administration strategy "is not the last chance" to salvage the war-torn country.
Although he insisted the administration would give the new offensive the time and funding it needed, Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee that if the strategy did not show the hoped-for results, the military would probably shift its efforts to a strategy centered on moving U.S. troops "out of harm's way."
"I think that if this operation were not to succeed -- and we clearly are hoping it will succeed, planning for it to succeed, allocating the resources for it to succeed -- but I would tell you that I think I would be irresponsible if I weren't thinking about what the alternatives might be if that didn't happen," Gates testified.
Before Tuesday, administration officials had refused to discuss what steps they might take if President Bush's strategy, involving 21,500 extra troops, were to fail. But many congressional critics believe the plan has little chance of success.
Although Gates did not go into detail about the Pentagon's thinking on a post-buildup plan, his acknowledgment that such a scenario would include shifting troops out of heavy combat areas could lend support to Democratic calls to immediately move American forces into more-secure locations, perhaps in neighboring Kuwait or northern Kurdish areas of Iraq.
It also was a stance much more in line with recommendations made in December by the Iraq Study Group, a high-profile collection of former government officials that at one time included Gates. The panel called for a stepped-up effort to train Iraqi forces and for a gradual withdrawal of combat troops.
Gates also appeared to embrace another recommendation by the Iraq Study Group that has been supported by congressional Democrats: the threat to withdraw financial or political support from the Iraqi government if officials do not live up to their commitments.
Gates said the administration was drawing up a detailed checklist of benchmarks to judge the Iraqi government's commitment to the strategy, adding "there is always the potential of withholding assistance" if Prime Minister Nouri Maliki fails to deliver on his promises.
