BAGHDAD, Iraq - New U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday with a mandate from U.S. President George W. 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.