Robert Gates: Should We Want Him to Stay? by Steve Clemons

[Douglas Carpenter]

Robert Gates: Should We Want Him to Stay?

by Steve Clemons
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/11/robert_gates_sh/

Bob Gates is keeping his Pentagon perch (which has been quite clear for some time).

I had moved close to the view that Gates should go. My thinking at the time was that Gates played a vital role "Out-Cheneying Cheney" in the last couple of years of G.W. Bush's term, but that his skill at crunching out the ambiguity in the national security decision making process that Cheney and Rumsfeld exploited would not be necessary in the Obama White House ecosystem.

In other words, one needed Gates to be a constraint on Bush, but why would Obama want to run the risk that Gates would constrain his team?

After speaking to some other national security policy experts very close to Bob Gates and General Brent Scowcroft, I changed course and began to see the value of Gates staying at DoD.

My hunch is that Gates wants a chance to make the kind of leaps in the Middle East I have been writing about for some time. He wants to try and push Iran-US relations into a constructive direction. He wants to change the game in Afghanistan -- and the answer will not be a military-dominant strategy. He wants to try and stabilize Iraq in a negotiated, confidence building process that includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and other regional forces. And he wants to support a big push on Israel-Palestine peace and reconfigure relations between much of the Arab League and Israel.

This is a big order. And he wants to lurk in the shadows, behind the scenes and away from cameras and let other of Obama's team get the spotlight and credit.

National Security Advisor-to-be Jim Jones is on the same page as Gates -- and the two of them will constitute a considerably strong axis of power inside the Obama White House. My hunch is that Hillary Clinton and her State Department Deputy James Steinberg will work collaboratively to achieve this vision.

It's a big gamble. There is a large chance of paralysis between big foreign policy/national security guns that don't like yielding to power rivals in an administration.

But the gamble could be a very big payoff for Obama and the country -- and would actually deliver the "change" that so many are expecting.

We'll see -- not trying to be naive or to give Obama too many breaks. But I am trying to understand his choices and how he thinks he's going to achieve his policy targets.

-- Steve Clemons

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2008/11/robert_gates_sh/

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[FKA MNChimpH8R]

1. Gates is not Rumsfeld. He's no saint, but he's no idiot either

and the continuity is not necessarily a bad thing til Wes Clark becomes able to hold the position after 10 full years of retirement from active service. Gates ain't gonna piss on Obama's parade. He's a bureaucrat, not a PNAC ideologue.

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. my thoughts exactly! Gates appears to be a pragmatic technocrat - not an ideologue

And he could perhaps help provide the necessary political cover for a a more pragmatic Middle East policy rooted more in enlightened self-interest rather than ideology and reflexive, "war on terror" emotionalism

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. /

[napi21]

2. I think the most important thing right now is continuity, and Gates gives

you that. It seems like a lot of prople are forgeting that it's the Commander In Cheif who sets the direction and it's the Gates' of the Gov't that implement those directives. Gates is a smart man and knows what he's doing, and he's NOT an idiot idalog like Rummy. This is a good move to keep him on for a smooth transition.

[Marrah_G]

3. I actually think he should stay, at least for a little while

He is a registered independant and He may well turn out to be a huge asset under an Obama administration. Remember that Obama is not Bush- they could end up being a great team with Obama as head coach.

[Danger Mouse]

5. I was actually somewhat impressed with Gates. I have a feeling he kept us out of Iran.

[Thrill]

6. Hmmmmm I think Gates wants to write a book. And being in this historic administration

Is a great closing chapter.

[BeFree]

7. Obama wants him. So there is that

Of course my pick would be someone like the Kooch, but then I'm a damned commie peacnik.

As it is Gates makes a great target for us. Who in the greater world would object to citizens of the US complaining mightily about our defense department?

Iirc, ^{If i remember correctly} the dod budget is the most wasteful large item on the federal budget. Lets take it down a notch or two, eh?

[Occam Bandage]

9. It all depends on what you define as waste, eh?

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. one kick for the next shift