Gates Assures Clinton of Drawdown Plans

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he is personally engaged in developing contingency plans for a drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq and emphasized that those efforts constitute a "priority" for the Pentagon.

"Such planning is indeed taking place with my active involvement as well as that of senior military and civilian officials and our commanders in the field," Gates said in a letter to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Such preparation for a troop reduction, he said, "is not only appropriate, but essential."

His letter -- delivered by courier to Clinton's office on Wednesday evening -- sought to smooth over a series of tense exchanges between the Democratic presidential front-runner and the Pentagon. After Clinton wrote to Gates in May requesting a briefing on plans for a troop withdrawal, Pentagon policy chief Eric S. Edelman responded with a letter last week accusing her of reinforcing "enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies" by discussing a timetable for withdrawal. Edelman, a career diplomat, moved in 2005 to the Pentagon from the office of Vice President Cheney.

After Edelman's letter, Clinton and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) announced that they would introduce legislation requiring the Pentagon to brief Congress on drawdown planning. "They're looking for any kind of briefing, report, answer -- whatever you want to call it -- from the Pentagon that this is happening," said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday on contingency plans for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and expects Edelman and a general from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to testify, said a source close to the committee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the panel's chairman has not made the announcement.

Gates's letter does not contemplate a complete pullout of U.S. forces, but rather centers on what he called "the draw down of forces at the right time." Military planners say that time will almost certainly begin next spring, when the current U.S. counteroffensive is expected to end -- if only because fresh troops will not be available to maintain the current level of about 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Extending the troop increase beyond the spring would impose extraordinary new burdens on U.S. troops, such as lengthening each tour of duty to 18 months.

Gates issued a statement late last week seeking to assuage Clinton by saying he welcomes congressional involvement in debating the war. He went further in his new letter, saying that he would be "pleased to work with you and the Senate Armed Services Committee to establish a process to keep you apprised of the conceptual thinking, factors, considerations, questions and objectives associated with drawdown planning."

The secretary added: "I truly regret that this important discussion went astray and I also regret any misunderstanding of intention."

In a statement yesterday, Clinton's office said that she welcomed Gates's letter but is "disappointed that Secretary Gates does not repudiate Under Secretary Edelman's unacceptable political attack."

Pentagon officials have been reluctant to discuss their thinking about a troop drawdown, in part for fear of starting a stampede toward the exits. In a July 13 Pentagon briefing, Gates described a drawdown as a "massive logistical undertaking, whenever it takes place."

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that in most circumstances troops would leave at the same rate they had arrived. "The system itself is designed right now to be able to increase or decrease about one brigade per month," Pace said.

At that rate, Reines noted, it would take nearly two years to remove the 20 U.S. brigades in Iraq, and planning "needs to start prior to the order being given." The Pentagon, he said, "might know what kind of planning and contingency" is underway, "but the Congress doesn't."

A senior U.S. military official in Baghdad said it is "premature to be looking at post-surge force structure" because the full effect of the troop increase is being felt only now. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has not made any decisions about the recommendations he will make "on timing, force structure or the eventual way ahead," the official added.

Even so, other senior U.S. officials in Iraq have said that considerable thinking is going into planning for a U.S. troop presence that aims for a smaller, longer-term force remaining in the country for years.