New U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is quietly opposing a plan by the Bush administration to surge thousands of extra troops into Baghdad to pacify and hold the capital. Gates last week personally informed a group of Pentagon civilian officials that he was skeptical about the plan, which was drawn up by Frederick Kagan, a military expert from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). President George W. Bush is said to be leaning toward accepting the plan as policy, following a rejection of the Iraq Study Group s (ISG) plan to begin a withdrawal of troops in 2008, and begin talking to Iraq s neighbors in Iran and Syria. Officially, the defense department said that any speculation about Gates opinion would be premature. The secretary made a trip to Iraq, he consulted with senior military commanders in the country, he most recently met with the president at Camp David this weekend, a spokesman said. He will make his recommendations to the president. At this juncture it would be premature to speculate what the secretary s recommendations are or will be. Bush will be meeting today with his top advisers to map out a strategy for Iraq. Most likely, Bush will announce shortly after the New Year that he is sending thousands more troops to Baghdad in an effort to clamp down on sectarian violence and improve security conditions for average Iraqis in an effort to politically sideline militias.
