Sep 15, 2008 4:00 pm US/Central
Gates: 'Mission Transition' In Iraq
BAGHDAD (CBS News) ―
-
-
Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion 23rd Infantry Regiment point their weapons down an alley to provide cover for fellow soldiers to search an Iraqi house in the restive Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad on March 9, 2008.
David Furst/AFP/Getty Images
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that although no additional U.S. combat brigades are to withdraw from Iraq this year, he expects the U.S. combat role to keep shrinking.
"We are clearly in a mission transition," he told reporters on an overnight flight here from Washington.
U.S. troops will increasingly play a backup role, Gates said, as Iraqi security forces take on more of the responsibility for fighting an insurgency that has lost much of its power and influence over the past year.
"The areas in which we are seriously engaged (in fighting) will, I think, continue to narrow," Gates said.
Iraq currently has primary responsibility for security in 11 of its 18 provinces. It regained responsibility for Anbar province, at one time the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency, a few weeks ago.
Gates told Congress last week that improved security in Iraq would give the U.S. military the flexibility to do more in Afghanistan in the coming months, but even as he hinted at possible further troop cuts in Iraq next year, he said a go-slow approach was justified by several worrisome circumstances, including slow progress on the political front.
"I worry that the great progress our troops and the Iraqis have made has the potential to override a measure of caution born of uncertainty," Gates told the House Armed Services Committee. "Our military commanders do not yet believe our gains are necessarily enduring - and they believe that there are still many challenges and the potential for reversals in the future."
Gates also warned lawmakers that "we should expect to be involved in Iraq for many years to come, although in changing and increasingly limited ways."
In the interview Monday, Gates said he is focusing heavily now on expanding the use and effectiveness of intelligence and surveillance programs that have played an important part in eroding the insurgency in Iraq.
It is Gates' eighth trip to Iraq since becoming defense secretary in December 2006.
Sandstorms prevented Gates' aircraft from stopping as planned at Camp Speicher, near the northern city of Tikrit, to receive a briefing on a once-secret program, known as Task Force Odin.
The program has innovatively linked a variety of surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft - drones as well as manned planes - with new sensor technologies to hunt down insurgent cells.
Those assets also are linked to attack helicopters and other planes capable of striking at discrete targets on short notice, day and night. One of the keys has been expanding the availability of full-motion video cameras aboard aircraft that can transmit live images to other aircraft and to ground stations, enabling quick action.
"We have a lot more plans under way" for expanding that program, Gates said.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Northstar Opens Despite Efforts To Block
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
