BAGHDAD, Iraq - New Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday, armed with a mandate from
President Bush to help forge a new Iraq war strategy. He made the unannounced trip to the battlefront just two days after taking over at the Pentagon.
Gates went in pursuit of advice from his top military commanders on a new strategy for an increasingly unpopular, costly and chaotic war — one he has conceded the U.S. is not winning. His trip so soon after taking office underscored the Bush administration's effort to be seen as energetically seeking a new path in the conflict.
"The whole purpose is to go out, listen to the commanders, talk to the Iraqis, and see what I can learn," Gates told reporters as he boarded his aircraft in Washington on Tuesday.
Gates and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were scheduled to meet with U.S. and Iraqi military and political leaders.
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