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The new U.S. Defense Secretary, Robert
Gates, took office Monday, with a private swearing-in at the White House
and a public ceremony later at the Pentagon. VOA's Al Pessin reports from
the Pentagon.
Gates: "I, Robert Gates, do solemnly swear."
Cheney: "That I will support and defend."
Gates: "That I will support and defend."....
Robert Gates took his ceremonial oath of office as U.S. defense
secretary, administered by Vice-president Dick Cheney, who was defense
secretary 15 years ago.
After taking the oath in the Pentagon auditorium, surrounded by some of
the 2.5 million members of the U.S. military and half a million civilians
he now leads in the Defense Department, Secretary Gates said dealing with
the situation in Iraq is his top priority.
"We simply can not afford to fail in the Middle East," said Robert
Gates. "Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our
nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for decades to
come."
Speaking at the ceremony, President Bush called Robert Gates a man of
"vision" and "integrity," and said he comes into office at a time of
"great consequence."
"He understands that defeating the terrorists and the radicals and the
extremists in Iraq and the Middle East is essential to leading toward
peace," said President Bush. "As secretary of defense he will help our
country forge a new way forward in Iraq."
Secretary Gates addressed President Bush directly at Monday's ceremony.
"You have asked for my candor and my honest counsel at this critical
moment in our nation's history," he said. "And you will get both."
Gates said he will soon travel to Iraq to seek the advice of U.S.
military commanders and others.
"I look forward to hearing their honest assessments of the situation on
the ground and to having the benefit of their advice, unvarnished and straight from the shoulder," said
the new U.S. defense secretary.
And Gates said he will also be focusing on Afghanistan, where Taliban
insurgents and criminals have been threatening the new government and the
coalition that supports it.
"Progress made by the Afghan people over the last five years is at
risk," he said. "The United States and its NATO allies have made a
commitment to the Afghan people, and we intend to keep it."
Analyst Lawrence Korb of the Center for Defense Information, a former
senior defense department official, says there are no easy answers in
Iraq, but he expects Secretary Gates to make some changes in an effort to
reduce the violence and help the Iraqi government take hold.
"I find it very hard to think Gates would have taken the job if he did
not feel he could change the current policy," said Lawrence Korb. "I
really feel that he will make a difference. Certainly, if Secretary
Rumsfeld had remained there, I think there would have been very little
chance to make any meaningful changes."
At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Gates said there are
"no new ideas on Iraq," and that the challenge is to combine existing
ideas to develop an effective strategy. He also said the United States is
not winning in Iraq, and he did not take this job to do nothing about
that.
Robert Gates comes to the job of defense secretary after spending most
of the last four decades in government service - starting in an
entry-level job at the Central Intelligence Agency, and rising to lead
that agency, as well as to serve as deputy national security adviser to
President Bush's father. Gates said Monday decisions that will be made in
the remaining two years of the president's term will determine whether the
United States succeeds in Iraq and Afghanistan, or whether what he called
"the forces of extremism and chaos" will be on the rise.
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose term ended Monday
morning, said last week he would spend the Christmas and New Years
holidays with his family, and might write a book about his time in office.
His press secretary says Rumsfeld will have a government office near the
Pentagon for several months to sort through his papers and provide any
further help that is needed in the transition to Secretary Gates'
leadership. | 
