On his first day as defense secretary, Robert Gates warned Monday that failure in Iraq would be a “calamity” that would haunt the United States for years.
Underscoring eroding security there, a Pentagon report said the number of insurgent and sectarian attacks had risen to the highest level in years.
Sworn into office as the Bush administration moves toward revamping its strategy in Iraq, Gates sketched out an agenda of reversing the downward spiral in Iraq, attending to resurgent violence in Afghanistan and pushing for the military modernization that was a priority of his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Gates said he intends to travel soon to Iraq to hear commanders’ assessments of the situation on the ground and to gain their advice — “unvarnished and straight from the shoulder” — on how to adjust U.S. war strategy. He said he would give President Bush honest advice and listen to military commanders — a contrast to critics’ complaints that Rumsfeld was an ideologue who paid scant heed to top officers.