Quiet Gates has big role in Bush's Iraq decision

WASHINGTON, Sep 4 (Reuters) As befits an ex-spymaster, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has given away little about his views on Iraq strategy, while being praised for openness.

Both Democrats and Republicans have praised the former CIA director for candor since President George W. Bush picked him to take over the Pentagon from the controversial Donald Rumsfeld last November.

But his frank reputation has come largely from admitting mistakes made on his watch and before. He has avoided saying whether he thinks Bush should keep some 160,000 US troops in Iraq -- a level achieved by the ''surge'' of forces this year.

Gates, whose mild-mannered public style contrasts with his combative predecessor's, will have a big role in advising Bush on that decision and selling it to the US Congress and public after a slew of reports and testimony on the war this month.

As a low-key newcomer to Bush's Republican administration, Gates does not face the mistrust among Democrats on Capitol Hill reserved for senior officials first involved in planning and prosecuting the unpopular war that began in 2003.

''Bob has reached out, he's reached across the aisle, he's gone up for informal meetings,'' said former US national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, a close friend of Gates'.

''I think that will pay off big time.'' In formulating his advice to Bush, Scowcroft said, Gates would consider not just the war itself but also its effects on the US military, strained by troops' long tours of duty.

CIA CAREER A career CIA officer, Gates was Scowcroft's deputy and then CIA chief under the current president's father. He was head of Texas A&M University when Bush asked him to run the Pentagon.

People who have worked with Gates say he can be demanding, despite his understated image.

''He's not a chatty guy,'' said Arthur Hulnick, a longtime CIA colleague who is now associate professor of international relations at Boston University. He recalled Gates as someone who ''wasn't easy about dealing with people.'' Scowcroft said criticism of Gates as intimidating and cold always seemed wide of the mark to those who knew him.

''He's very businesslike, but he has a good sense of humor and he treats people like adults,'' Scowcroft said.

At the Pentagon, Gates, 63, has appeared keenly aware of the human cost of war. He hand writes notes to the families of each US service member killed in Iraq and fought back tears at a dinner in July as he told the story of a fallen Marine.

Some believe Gates secretly favors the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which called in December for US combat troops to be out of Iraq by spring 2008. Gates belonged to the group but quit before it agreed on its conclusions, because Bush had chosen him for the Pentagon.

The group's timeline may be unrealistic now, although its idea of a smaller US military presence focused on counterterrorism and training Iraqi forces could still be a viable goal.

But Gates has also declared that failing to stabilize Iraq would be catastrophic for U.S. national security. And while the surge plan may have been largely drawn up before his appointment, Gates may be wary of jeopardizing it by drawing down troops too soon.

''The surge has been implemented on his watch,'' noted Peter Rodman, a former assistant secretary of defense who worked under Gates before joining the Brookings Institution think tank. ''I think he is identified with it.'' Rodman said Gates was right to keep his views under wraps. His advice would carry more weight with Bush if the president did not feel he was being placed under public pressure.

Asked directly in June if he belonged to a camp in the administration pushing for a lower military profile in Iraq, Gates refused to be drawn out, recalling his own career at the CIA: ''I spent several decades as a Kremlinologist, and sometimes I got it right and sometimes I didn't.'' When pressed on whether Pentagon-watchers were reading him right, he replied with a smile: ''They'll find out.'' But if Gates stays true to form in keeping his own counsel even after Bush's decision, they might not.

REUTERS PD PM1920