The General Who Would Be King

For those outraged by the idea that President Elect Barrak Obama might retain Secretary Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense and appoint Gen. Jim Jones USMC Ret. to be his National Security Advisor to the President, I can say I feel far more at ease with the latter choice than I do the former.  General Jim Jones has serverd in combat earning the Silver Star and the Bronze Star with Combat V, earning the respect of his fellow Marines in the process.  As the Former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, he has been in direct contact with many of the foreign services whose intel assistance we will be in dire need of to coordinate our limited military and intel assets on the new stage of Terrorist and Machiavellian Medici-like warfare this new century presents us.  The latest cyber-attack on the Pentagon, the Alexander Litvinenko radiation poisoning in London last year and the Mumbai attacks of late are a paltry few examples of the challenges the United States faces.  We should rest much easier when we know there will be a professional who knows the players we need to interact with on a daily basis but also understands the consequences and responsibilities this nation assumes when choosing to unleash the dogs of war.

Sec. Robert Gates on the other hand is a retention choice I am loathe to concur with for a number of reasons including his drilling business contacts, his former CIA role, his Air Force Background and his involvement in a corporate Board selling voting machine cryptography. There's also his involvement in Iran-Contra... all of these issues you can Wikipedia and or dig deeper, suffice it to say he makes me nervous just on the face of all these involvements.  The Air Force has not impressed me much with its brand of procurement process the latest example being the Air Tanker Bidding Snafu.  With our economy in recession we will desperately need fiscal restraint and agile procurement methods to make the most of our defense spending.  Other than the fact you don't change horses in the midst of a race, and I can see the value of continuity at the pentagon until the President gets his house in order, I can only discern Our President-elect is extending an olive branch to the conservatives and giving Robert Gates a Chance to prove that he holds the post by merit and not by Political caveat.  I'm just a grunt but I know it's an ugly room to walk into when you are the new guy trying to find your turf and there are some ugly rooms in the Pentagon.

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