Gates plays down report Marines want Iraq exit | Reuters

“I have heard that they were beginning to think about that and that’s all that I’ve heard. I’ve seen no plan, no one’s come to me with any proposals about it,” Gates told reporters in London after meeting his British counterpart, Des Browne.

Translation:
I’m just here as a place-holder, until the next administration replaces me with somebody real.
So nobody tells me anything.