WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he accepted President-elect Barack Obama's approach to scheduled troop reductions in Iraq, arguing Tuesday that the hotly debated subject of timelines for withdrawal largely had been settled by a new U.S.-Iraq security agreement.
"That bridge has been crossed," Gates said a day after he formally agreed to remain as Obama's Defense secretary. "And so the question is: How do we do this in a responsible way?"
The security agreement, approved last week by Iraqi officials, requires U.S. combat troops to leave Iraqi cities and towns by June 30 and to withdraw completely by the end of 2011. Obama wants combat troops out within 16 months, but has indicated he would take security considerations and advice from commanders into account.
By staying, Gates becomes the first U.S. Pentagon chief to be carried over from one administration to the next. In a Gallup poll released Tuesday, 80% of Americans surveyed supported Obama's decision to keep Gates.
But Gates will have to manage a sharp change in policy, shifting from working for a president who has supported a high number of troops in Iraq to one who has repeatedly said he intends to quickly withdraw combat troops.
Saying that his tenure would be "open-ended," Gates promised during a Pentagon news conference that he would not be merely a caretaker as secretary. He hinted that he planned to put some muscle behind his rhetorical critique of Pentagon spending priorities and to overhaul the way the military buys weapons.
He also said that closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be a high priority, but could require new legislation, such as a measure preventing former detainees from seeking asylum in the United States.
And Gates said that the next request for emergency war funding, an estimated $83 billion, would be delivered to Congress in a matter of weeks. If approved, it would bring the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to about $947 billion.
Obama assembled an experienced team of strong-willed national security experts, and Gates said that he expected there would be differences of opinion. But he emphasized that Obama would make the big strategic decisions.
"The president-elect has made it pretty clear that he wanted a team of people around him who would tell him what they thought and give him their best advice," Gates said. "There will no doubt be differences among the team, and it will be up to the president to make the decisions."
