New defense secretary says he talked to Iraqis about U.S. giving more military help

Wednesday, December 20th 2006, 8:53 am

By: News On 6

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Defense Secretary Robert Gates talked with Iraqi officials on Thursday about possible additional military assistance for the embattled government and assured them of steadfast U.S. support.

Briefing reporters after his session with Iraqi leaders, Gates said the focus of the discussions was "mainly on the overall approach, including the possibility of some additional assistance." But he was vague about the type of assistance discussed, and said no specific numbers of extra troops were discussed.

"We were really talking in broad terms," he said.

President Bush is considering whether to quickly send thousands of additional U.S. troops to the country. There are already 140,000 American troops there.

Gates said he discussed with the Iraqis how their government could take the lead in addressing the country's deteriorating security problems. Besides an unrelenting insurgency, killings and kidnappings between Sunnis and Shiites are approaching civil war dimensions and U.S. and civilian casualties continue to rise.

"One of the strong messages I received today was the desire of the Iraqi government to take a leadership role in addressing some of the challenges that face the country, above all the security problem here in Baghdad," Gates said.

Gates said the talks examined "how in our partnership with the Iraqis in the lead we can best play a supporting role" in improving security.

The new defense chief is visiting Iraq with a high-level entourage in his first week in office to assess ways to calm growing violence in the country. President Bush is considering sending thousands more U.S. troops, and is expected to unveil his new policy next month.

Earlier this month, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended reducing the U.S. combat role in Iraq and shifting the focus to training and supporting Iraqi units.

"The Iraqi government is determined to improve the security of the people here in Iraq, and above all here in Baghdad," said Gates, after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Defense Minister Abdul Qadir and members of the Iraqi Security Council.

The defense secretary said he emphasized to the Iraqis "the steadfastness of American support and our enduring presence in the Persian Gulf."

Earlier in the day, Gates met with soldiers at Camp Victory here, and several said that extra forces would help.

"Sir I think we need to just keep doing what we're doing," Spc. Jason T. Green, with the 101st Military Intelligence Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division, told Gates during a breakfast session with about 15 U.S. soldiers.

"I really think we need more troops here," Green said. "With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold them off long enough to where we can get the Iraqi Army trained up."

The troops may be somewhat at odds with military commanders, who worry that rushing thousands more Americans to the battlefront could prompt Iraqis to slow their effort to take control of their country.

Those concerns are "clearly a consideration" in mapping out future strategy, Gates said.

His hour-long question-and-answer session with troops over scrambled eggs was largely spent gathering insights from those closest to the action.

When he asked them whether adding forces would help, he got a roomful of nods.

"More troops would help us integrate the Iraq Army into patrols more," said Pfc. Cassandra Wallace, from the 10th Mountain Division.

The soldiers also told him they think the Iraqi Army is getting better, but that it should be bigger and that many of the Iraqis are still not showing up for duty.

Gates, who later helicoptered to Balad Air Base west of Baghdad for a special operations briefing, did not tip his hand much to the soldiers, who were from the 1st Cavalry Division, the 1st Infantry Division and the 10th Mountain Division.

But he said U.S. logistics and support troops are likely to be in Iraq for a lot longer than the combat forces, as efforts continue to stabilize the country. And saying Iran and Syria are playing a very negative role in the violence in Iraq, he emphasized that "figuring out the regional context is very important."

"We need to make damned sure that the neighbors understand that we're going to be here for a long time, here being the Persian Gulf," said Gates.

Top U.S. commanders also have worried that even a short-term troop increase might bring only a temporary respite to the violence, or none at all, while creating shortages of fresh troops for future missions.