Newsweek: Def Sec Gates has carefully quashed moves by hard-liners to launch operations inside Iran

[sabra]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21018179/site/newsweek/page/2/


To little notice, the Defense secretary has gotten his way on Iraq, and possibly on Iran. Now, Gates is about to appoint a former top Clinton official to prove he means business.


<snip>

To ensure that this bipartisan, long-term approach continues, Gates is expected to announce soon that he is appointing John Hamre, a former deputy Defense secretary under Bill Clinton, as chairman of his Defense Policy Board, administration sources tell NEWSWEEK. Hamre, currently president of the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies, is a highly regarded technocrat who has been asked to help develop policies for transitioning to the next administration. This is a remarkable departure from Rumsfeld’s board, an influential advisory body that during the crucial years from 2001 to 2003 was led by a fire-breathing neocon, Richard Perle.

...

Gates is concerned not only about the terrible strains on the Army, but that Iraq is simply too politicized, his aides and advisers say. He wants to “lower the temperature,” says a senior Defense Department official who would talk about conversations with the secretary only on condition of anonymity. “I’ve heard him speak to his desire to get the situation in Iraq to a point where it can achieve sufficient bipartisan support, both in order to get the mission done and to remove it as the central hot-button issue that is is right now,” this official said.On the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, Gates has been quietly counseling moderation, as well. Among other moves, Gates has carefully quashed moves by hard-liners to launch provocative operations inside Iran in response to Tehran’s meddling in Iraq. “I think that the general view is we can manage this problem through better operations inside Iraq and on the border with Iran, that we can take care of the Iranian threat or deal with the Iranian threat inside the borders of Iraq—don't need to go across the border into Iran,” he told "Fox News Sunday" on Sept. 16. According to sources in the defense-intelligence community who are familiar with the various contingency plans for attacking Iran, Gates has had an impact there, as well, killing the Air Force’s “thousand points of light” air campaign, which would have involved an extensive target list. “He was a central element in making sure that plan died,” said one of these sources. “What emerged in its place was a much more scaled-down contingency plan.” But Gates has also taken the lead in stressing that the administration will continue to put diplomacy first.

[thereismore]

1. What can I say? One should be grateful for some republicans. nt

[madokie]

one thing about gates that worries me is when he was testifing before the Congress

this week he rarely looked his questioners in the eyes or the camera either for that matter, its almost like it makes me think he is lying to us. I sure hope he is truly a beacon of hope in this mal-administration

[acmavm]

2. If true, Gates has done some good, and I hate to admit it. BUT

I have to say that the next President has got to get rid of some of the top brass in the Air Force. Those guys are screwed up fundie crazed maniacs.

[Demeter]

3. Somehow, I'm Not Impressed

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

4. Is this suppose to convince me Gates is actually independent of our loyalist regime?

Excuse me as I just watch with a critical eye and see from a justifiable cynical position.

Sorry.