Gates May Seek New Iraq Plan, Tracking (Clark) Clifford Path

[babylonsister]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aZK_CQhbAwh0&refer=home

Gates May Seek New Iraq Plan, Tracking Clifford Path (Update2)

By Ken Fireman
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates today at the Pentagon

June 21 (Bloomberg) -- The new defense secretary arrived at a moment of crisis with the war at a stalemate, public support tumbling and the president groping for a new strategy.

Within a few months, he had replaced the top generals, imposed his will on those remaining and persuaded the president that the only exit from the bloody conflict was disengagement.

Robert Gates in 2007? No, Clark Clifford in 1968.

Just as Clifford convinced President Lyndon Johnson of the need to change course at the height of the Vietnam War, some officials and military and foreign-policy experts say, Defense Secretary Gates may be gearing up to persuade President George W. Bush to move toward a drawdown in Iraq.

``I see signs of it,'' said retired Army General William Odom, who served in Vietnam and ran the National Security Agency under President Ronald Reagan. ``Look at his assessments of the state of affairs out there. There is an elasticity to his position.''

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, agrees. He said Gates's public comments indicate that he is ``playing a prodding role'' within the Bush administration, aimed at ``trying to prepare the way for a shift of course.''

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[PATRICK]

1. And that honest effort

was so successful in ending the Vietnam War. This is not an honest effort, nor is it really know to be an effort other than PR. Nor does it mean Bush II is really the guy to listen, compared to LBJ in any category. Nor does it mean that anything will happen so long as Cheney is in charge. And Gates is no Clark Clifford.