No Silver Bullet from Prime Minister Baker

Uh-oh, looks like Prime Minister Baker may not have a simple solution to the non-civil war that we are not winning (but not losing!) in his vest pocket after all.

Bob Gates, the president's pick to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, was until recently part of the Iraq Study Group, the committee co-chaired by the Republican former secretary of state James A. Baker III and the Democratic former Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton. The group is expected to present its findings to President Bush this morning, along with the cure for AIDS.

But Gates admitted yesterday that the group was fresh out of fresh approaches when he told a Senate committee, "It's my impression that frankly there are no new ideas on Iraq.'' There are no new ideas on Bush appointees, either, apparently; who says Republicans are not serious about recycling?

The last time Gates faced Senate confirmation, when the first President Bush chose him to head the CIA 15 years ago, his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair was an issue, and the hearings went on for months. As director, critics considered Gates a yes man.

Yesterday, however, Senate Democrats fell all over themselves praising him; members of the Senate Armed Services Committee not only unanimously approved his nomination, but could hardly have been more fawning. New York Senator Hillary Clinton seemed especially bowled over by the man's refreshing candor.

For example, he showed the courage to state the obvious: We are not winning the war in Iraq. (He hastened to add, however, that we are not losing either.)

Gates went on to make other, similarly bold statements: Our actions in the Middle East will have consequences for years to come.

Oh, and this one: "I think that military action against Iran would be an absolute last resort,'' Gates said. Unlike some other wars we could name, right?

"I think that what we have seen in Iraq that once war is unleashed, it becomes unpredictable,'' he said. "And I think that the consequences of a conflict, a military conflict, with Iran could be quite dramatic.''

Not only that, but - I hope you are seated -- Gates said that Osama bin Laden, rather than Saddam Hussein, was responsible for the 9/11 attacks all along. Now that is refreshing