New Iraq Military Team Faces Increasing Opposition

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• RAY SUAREZ:

  The president's newly complete war council arrived early at the White House this morning: the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Peter Pace; the newly confirmed commanding general in Iraq, David Petraeus.

  And leading them was the senior civilian in the Defense Department, Secretary Robert Gates, on the job little more than a month — the topic of discussion, the so-called surge of troops into Baghdad.

  GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: I worked with our military, and I worked with Secretary Gates to come up with a plan that is likely to succeed. And the implementer of that plan is going to be General Petraeus.

• RAY SUAREZ:

  In the early afternoon, Gates went before the press for his first formal news briefing. His predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, had frequently turned such occasions into theater, with his blunt and combative demeanor.

  ROBERT GATES, Secretary of Defense: Frankly, I would prefer a more informal setting than the dais and the big sign behind me and so on.

• RAY SUAREZ:

  Gates chose a different format, calling this a roundtable, and even went so far as to speak with reporters in a different room than the one Rumsfeld used.

  But Gates showed he could be blunt, in his own way.

• QUESTION:

  Mr. Secretary, Senator Lieberman says the Senate resolution opposing a 21,000 increase in troops would offer some encouragement to the enemy. Would you agree with that?

• ROBERT GATES:

  Well, I think it's pretty clear that a resolution that, in effect, says that the general going out to take command of the arena shouldn't have the resources he thinks he needs to be successful certainly emboldens the enemy and our adversaries.

• RAY SUAREZ:

  Gates has served in government for 30 years, ending his first tenure as director of central intelligence in the first Bush administration. Before his nomination in November, Gates was president of Texas A&M University.

  During his confirmation hearings last month, Gates was pointed in his assessment of the American endeavor in Iraq.

  SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), Michigan: Mr. Gates, do you believe that we are currently winning in Iraq?

• ROBERT GATES:

  No, sir.

• RAY SUAREZ:

  Gates said the president wanted a fresh set of eyes on the task in Iraq.

• ROBERT GATES:

  All options are on the table, in terms of how we address this problem in Iraq, in terms of how we can be more successful and how we can, at some point, begin to draw down our forces.

• RAY SUAREZ:

  But the top option would not draw down the U.S. force. Instead, the Bush administration proposal is to send 20,000 more troops into Iraq. Gates took to Capitol Hill defending the plan, even if its end game was still unclear.

• ROBERT GATES:

  I don't think anybody has a definite idea about how long the surge would last. I think for most of us, in our minds, we're thinking of it as a matter of months, not 18 months or two years.

• RAY SUAREZ:

  In his short time in office, Gates has made two trips to Baghdad — one an announced visit of three days, the other, just last week, a brief stopover in the Iraqi capital.

  He was on his way back from Afghanistan, where he said he would push the request from commanders for more troops to take on a resurgent Taliban, just as he agreed with Army and Marine generals to expand the overall size of both services.