Wise Move

By Ron Beasley

I'm not a really big fan of the "Scowcroft Realists" but at least they are sane unlike the neocons.  They have evil intentions but prefer covert actions to overt military adventures. That said I think this is a wise move on Obama's part.

Gates agrees to stay on under Obama

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay on under President-elect Barack Obama, according to officials in both parties. Obama plans to announce a national-security team early next week that includes Gates at the Pentagon and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state, officials said. 

Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, former Marine commandant and commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, will be named national security adviser, the officials said. 

Obama needs to concentrate on reinventing the economy.  He needs experienced and respected people to handle the Pentagon and extracting us for the quagmire that is Iraq.  I suspect that Gates has more in common with Obama than he did with the administration of George W. Bush.  I suspect that he also might relish putting one General Petreaus in his place - remind him he is a general and not a policy maker. 
 

Comments

[Ralph]

That is helpful. Thank you, Ron.

It's going to be very interesting to see what happens after Jan 20. The world has become a movie whose plot most of us can barely follow. Commentators keep comparing the present situation with the Great Depression, but the growth in size and complexity of the human life-support system since then is so enormous that I have to wonder about the value of such comparisons. For example, here are a few things that didn't exist in 1929:

Supertankers! GPS satellites! The HIV virus! Female suicide bombers! GM crops! Cell phones! The internet! Computer programs trading trillions of dollars of assets, 24 hours per day! Falling water tables! Rising temperatures! Depleting fish stocks! Factory farms!

Each of the above must have some substantial but entirely unquantifiable relevance to what happens next in the world. And with so many new variables in play, even the supposed experts are shaking their heads.

It's a thrilling time to be alive. Dare I say, maybe even a bit too thrilling?

[Redhand]

I suspect that he [Gates] also might relish putting one General Petreaus in his place - remind him he is a general and not a policy maker.

Well, yes, but you almost can't blame the General. Bush's abdication of policy-making authority to Petreaus, as a way of trying to cover his own incompetent ass, was total.