Iraq Strategy Casts Shadow over Gates Hearings

JIM LEHRER:

And now, Gates, Baker-Hamilton, Iraq, et al., as seen this Monday night by Dov Zakheim, the Pentagon's comptroller and chief financial officer during President Bush's first term. He's now a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton.

And Jessica Mathews, a State Department and National Security Council official in the Carter and the Clinton administrations, she's now president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

So, Jessica Mathews, how do you see Bob Gates as a replacement for Donald Rumsfeld right now?

JESSICA MATHEWS, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Somebody who will be able to command, I think, a lot more of Congress's trust, notwithstanding the issues that we just heard about, more of a caretaker than a leader, a manager, an executive.

But remember:

He's an intelligence professional, not a defense professional. So he's coming in, in the middle of six crises, with very little time left. I think the role maximally, really, is more of a caretaker.

JIM LEHRER:

Do you agree, a caretaker?

DOV ZAKHEIM, Former Pentagon Official:

No, it's got to be more than a caretaker. First of all, lots and lots of people other than Donald Rumsfeld have come in without being experienced secretaries of defense. What he brings is executive cabinet-level experience. That's very, very important.

He brings a record of working with other agencies. He brings a record of being able to work with the Congress. He brings a record, evidently, of satisfying a lot of people when he was head of the CIA. He has to do more than just be a caretaker; being a caretaker for Iraq over the next two years just isn't enough.

JIM LEHRER:

What do you think of that? I mean, do you think that it's possible that Bob Gates could actually influence Iraq policy? You don't think so, huh?

JESSICA MATHEWS:

Oh, I think he will be a player, but I think the key players here are the president and the vice president.

DOV ZAKHEIM:

Oh, he's going to be more than that. But in a sense, isn't that what we want?

One of the complaints that one heard, whether right or wrong about Donald Rumsfeld, was that he was more than just a player, that he was dominating everything. Now when someone comes in who has a record for cooperating with lots of people, working in what's called the interagency, shouldn't complain that he actually does what people were complaining about Mr. Rumsfeld.

JESSICA MATHEWS:

I don't disagree with that; nor am I complaining about it. I was trying to describe what role I think he'll play.

I think that everything we know about Bob Gates' career suggests a very different kind of personality, who's more interested in team-playing than in perhaps bringing up inconvenient truths and, you know, upsetting the apple cart in the direction of any particular policy one way or the other.