Obama Asks Gates to Stay at Pentagon
25 November 2008 5:17 pm by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
Obama reaches
for continuity to retain Gates.
Seeking experience in a time of war, President-elect Barack Obama will keep
Defense Secretary Robert Gates in that job — if only temporarily —
and he has chosen a retired Marine general to be his national security adviser,
officials said Tuesday. Gates and retired Gen. James Jones bring years of
experience to the Cabinet of a 47-year-old commander in chief with a relatively
thin foreign policy resume.
In other news, Brennan has removed his name for consideration at C.I.A. or
D.N.I. Scott Horton
runs down the problems with Brennan, whose stance on enhanced interrogations,
what you and I would call torture, don’t exactly pass the Geneva Conventions
test. Also see Greenwald
on Brennan.
A Note on Gates: Continuity is the point, but also cover, as Obama begins to draw down forces in Iraq, with a shift towards Afghanistan. It’s more complex at the beginning for Obama than simply the challenges of changing the foreign policy establishment of Bush-Cheney.
