Word: pentagonals
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...wonks, Obama's choice of Jones highlights his centrist tendency and his willingness to confound his party. It will be Jones' job to serve as a foreign-policy broker for the President, funneling to Obama his assessment of how to best reconcile the conflicting views of the State Department, Pentagon, and other elements of the U.S. government's international actors...
...would ever stand trial, but Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and others could. This would show the world that America does not, in fact, always act with impunity. However, in reality, we have yet to hear any kind of admission or apology from the Administration in its waning days, and the Pentagon's attitude toward the civilian casualties caused by its troops leaves a lot to be desired. Without actively seeking moral (and legal) accountability, both retrospectively and looking to the future, America will never regain the trust and authority it has lost. Barry Meggs, DUBLIN...
...Gates associates have made it clear that he is likely to stay if asked to by Obama, so long as he can keep some trusted aides. Gates, a career CIA man who served as president of Texas A&M University before coming to the Pentagon in December 2006, isn't even a registered Republican, according to Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada. (Gates' spokesman said Thursday he didn't know his boss's political registration.) Still, antiwar activists are growing concerned at the prospect of an increasingly hawkish Obama Cabinet featuring Gates as Defense chief and Senator Hillary Clinton...
...After the bruising it took from Gates' predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, the uniformed military also appears keen to retain the incumbent. At the highest levels, officials praise Gates' calm demeanor and interest in their opinions. "He still comes to the tank every week to hear them out," a Pentagon official says of Gates' regular meeting in the Joint Chiefs' secure conference room...
...respect he has gained from all quarters after the fiasco that went before," says Anthony Zinni, a retired four-star Marine who once headed the U.S. Central Command. "He would also provide continuity at a critical time." The key to Gates' sticking around, Zinni suggests, is how many Pentagon political appointees Obama would let Gates keep if he stays, which would deny Democrats those crucial national security positions. "I think he won't stay without his team," Zinni says of Gates, "and the [Obama] Administration can't let him keep them." Then, uncharacteristically for this particular parlor game, Zinni adds...