Troop pullout plan is a ‘priority,’ Gates tells Clinton

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he was personally engaged in developing contingency plans for a drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq and emphasized that those efforts were 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 wrote in a letter to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday. Such preparation for a troop reduction, he said, “is not only appropriate, but essential.”

Gates’ letter -- delivered by courier to Clinton’s office 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 troop withdrawal, Pentagon policy chief Eric Edelman responded with a letter last week accusing the senator 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 Dick Cheney.

In the wake of 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,” Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said.

Gates’ letter doesn’t contemplate a complete pullout of U.S. forces, but rather centers on “the drawdown 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.

Gates issued a statement late last week seeking to assuage Clinton by saying he welcomed congressional involvement in debating the war. He went further in his new letter, saying, “I 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.”

He added: “I truly regret that this important discussion went astray, and I also regret any misunderstanding of intention.”

In a statement Thursday, Clinton’s office said she welcomed Gates’ letter but was “disappointed that Secretary Gates does not repudiate Undersecretary Edelman’s unacceptable political attack.”