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Gates fired the salvo on the eve of an historic debate in Congress this month on whether to continue funding the Iraq war, which costs taxpayers $10 billion each month.
"The complexity of managing the flow of units, individuals and capabilities to two active combat theaters is enormous and does not lend itself to simplistic or to simple legislative prescriptions," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.
The defense secretary took aim at an amendment from Sen. James Webb, D-Va. It would mandate that units spend at least as much time at their home base as they spend deployed.
Gates said the bill would force "gaps in capability" because there would be no unit with enough rest time to immediately replace exiting troops.
Army units are now deploying for 15 months in Iraq and Afghanistan, with only one year back home.
President Bush announced Thursday he had endorsed a pullback of up to 30,000 troops by July 2008 to bring the U.S. force level in Iraq to around 132,000.
But Democratic leaders say the troops were part of a five-brigade reinforcement scheduled to leave anyway. They are pushing for legislation that would have most troops out by the end of 2008.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants Bush to bring home troops, 5,000 at a time, as a message of unhappiness with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace, who leaves office next month as Joint Chiefs chairman, rebutted press reports that said senior commanders differed with Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, over troop cuts.
Pace said there was "unanimity amongst the eight four-star officers" who made recommendations to Bush. The eight are Petraeus; Navy Adm. William Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command; and the six Joint Chiefs.
Gates said he hopes the remaining 15 brigades can be reduced to 10, for a total of about 100,000 troops in Iraq, by January 2009. Petraeus is due to present his next assessment in March 2008.
"There's no way in a fight like this to be able to guarantee other than that there are some tough work still ahead of us," Pace said.



Comments from Examiner Readers
10:49 AM MST on Tue., Jun. 3, 2008 re: "Gates wins no promises on Asia trip for help on Afghanistan"
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9:15 PM MST on Fri., Oct. 19, 2007
re: "US Military Action Last Resort in Iran"
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1:02 PM MST on Mon., Jun. 4, 2007
re: "Gates Warns Turkey Not to Invade Iraq"
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Examiner Reader said:
face it robert! other countries are wise to us. its only the citizens of the u s that cant figure out how to pull the wool off our eyes. the so called terrorists dont have to attack us again.were perfectly capable of destroying ourselves with our own govt. and BORROWING banking system. i hear you can get last years potatoes down at the food share for .08 cent dollars.
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Examiner Reader said:
Laughable, really. For over three years we've heard nothing but empty threats. The US is in no position to open another front in the region. Any strike on Iran will result in all out war. There is offcourse the talk of shock and awe, but the US better be ready to recieve some shock itself.
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turkish army was formed 209 b.c! said:
how can we ignore the pkk terror? we are in war with terror! how can we ignore the 35.000 turkish victims? what about russia, iran and china? what about the evil terror?! they are our allies and they fight against terror! please america dont do suicide.
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