"Obama shuffles top national security positions; Panetta to head defense; CIA to get Petraeus" by Karen DeYoung, Washington Post / April 28, 2011
WASHINGTON — President Obama will nominate CIA Director Leon Panetta as secretary of defense this week, replacing Robert M. Gates as part of a series of national security shifts that will also place Afghanistan war commander General David Petraeus in the top CIA job, US officials said.
Related: Out of the Mouth of Gates
Panetta the Prick
Article says Panetta was Gates' suggested pick for the job, and you can see why.
Also see: Petraeus' Private Eyes
Obama's Airstrike Scalpel
Looks like MORE MISSILE STRIKES in the offing, world.
In an announcement planned for today, Obama will also name Ryan Crocker, a five-time ambassador who retired in 2009 after wartime service in Iraq, to head the US diplomatic mission in Kabul....
He BRINGS BACK a BUSH MAN?
The changes, which will not take effect until this summer, essentially preserve the status quo on the national security team as the administration heads into a crucial period of turmoil in the Middle East and South Asia, US military withdrawal from Iraq, and a make-or-break year in Afghanistan....
Related: AmeriKa Has Lost Afghanistan
Already broken, and all the king's horses and all the king's men....
Completing the changes, Marine Lieutenant General John Allen, currently deputy commander of the US Central Command, will take Petraeus’s job in Afghanistan, according to knowledgeable officials not authorized to speak on the record....
Officials said that Allen, who worked closely with White House national security adviser Thomas E. Donilon when Donilon headed the powerful NSC deputies committee, was the unanimous choice of the Pentagon’s senior civilian and military leadership.
Now that is a bit interesting:
"Donilon.... repeatedly challenged the military to justify the need for large numbers of troops over a period of a decade or more, finally cautioning the president that a policy of what he termed “endless war’’ was not wise or politically sustainable.... Donilon had similarly testy relations with Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.... Inside the White House, Donilon has spoken often of the need to conduct a “rebalancing’’ of US foreign policy, devoting renewed attention to great power relationships and America’s long-term position in Asia."
And AWAY from ISRAEL!!
The one outlier is Crocker, who is being brought back into government after a hiatus of more than two years.
He served as ambassador to Pakistan, Syria, and elsewhere in the region in addition to Iraq, and brings a wealth of experience on the world’s most volatile region.
Crocker, who has resisted previous administration attempts to lure him back to government, was persuaded to take the job during a private meeting with Obama three weeks ago.
Petraeus and Crocker were hailed as a “dream team’’ that turned around the Iraq war....
If you believe the agenda-pushing AmeriKan media account.
So AmeriKa called of the "Al-CIA-Duh" dogs until they need them (usually as we are talking about hitting the door, ever notice that? Must be the most stoo-pid terrorists alive -- if they even exist at all), so what?
The widely anticipated choice of Panetta also brings a budget expert to the Pentagon as the domestic debate over the country’s fiscal health increases in volume and political importance.
But no thought of ending the occupations, military machine, or empire.
A former chairman of the House Budget Committee, Panetta served as director of the Office of Management and Budget during the first Clinton administration and played a major role in the successful 1993 budget negotiations with recalcitrant lawmakers.
Oooh, recalcitrant lawmakers.
Better do what the Fuhrer, 'er, Party, 'er....
Panetta is said to share Gates’s desire to reform the Pentagon’s procurement system and pare back its mushrooming budget. Gates, a holdover from the George W. Bush administration, has said he wants to return to private life this year.
Related:
Globe Editorial Solid resumes for tough times
If they get the Globe's seal of approval they must be horrible moves.
Update: Afghan pilot kills 9 Americans at NATO base
But we are winning.
And it is amazing how fast things change on deck:
"Crocker is reportedly Obama’s pick as next envoy to Afghanistan" April 27, 2011|By Anne Gearan and Bradley Klapper, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Obama is likely to name seasoned diplomat Ryan Crocker as the next US ambassador to Afghanistan, several people said yesterday, part of a far-reaching turnover of the nation’s top leadership of the Afghan war as Obama prepares to begin bringing forces home this summer.
The move would reunite Crocker with General David Petraeus in a rerun of the diplomatic and military “dream team’’ credited with rescuing the flagging American mission in Iraq.
Except Petraeus will be working out of Langley.
In the coming months, Obama will have to name successors to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen, other senior military leaders, and probably Petraeus himself.
Let's face it, readers. the move had already been talked about and the paper here acts like it didn't know a thing.
Crocker emerged this month as the leading candidate to replace Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, a former Army general whose two-year tenure was marred by cool relationships with major players in the Afghan war, including the White House, US military leaders, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Related: AmeriKa's Family Feud in Afghanistan
All happy again.
People in the administration and others said Crocker’s is the only name currently under consideration, but the White House has not made a final decision.
Obviously coming because the agenda-pushing paper is preparing you for it.
All of the people spoke on condition of anonymity because the nomination is not final and Eikenberry is still in his job. His departure has not been announced, and he may remain in Kabul for months while Crocker or another successor gets the necessary Senate confirmation, they said.
Officials said the White House is weighing several factors, including Crocker’s role in the larger cast change in Afghanistan policy this summer and fall. Those personnel changes are unrelated to the progress of the war, now in its 10th year, but come just as Obama needs to demonstrate enough success to follow through with his pledge to begin withdrawing US forces in July.
What progress, and why lie about the unrelated aspect?
The administration has yet to inform legislators of its choice, a sign that the nomination might not be imminent, according to a congressional aide.
Yeah, pass me that grain of salt with my newspaper.
The Pentagon calls 2011 the make-or-break year for turning around the war and laying the path for a gradual US exit by 2015.
This is like the tenth make-or-break year since the occupation began.
Obstacles include uncertain leadership and weak government of Karzai, the question of whether the Taliban can be integrated into Afghan political life, and the continued safe harbor Pakistan provides for militants attacking US and NATO forces over the border in Afghanistan....
Translation: We are NOT LEAVING -- EVER!!!!!
And integrating the Taliban should not be a question.
After all, THEY are the ones that LIVE THERE!!!!!
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Not the first shuffle, either:
"Pentagon investigation clears McChrystal, aides; Rolling Stone article disputed" April 19, 2011|By Thom Shanker, New York Times
WASHINGTON — An inquiry by the Defense Department inspector general into a magazine profile that resulted in the abrupt, forced retirement of General Stanley A. McChrystal has cleared the general, his military aides, and civilian advisers of all wrongdoing.
Pentagon investigators said they were unable to confirm the events as reported in the June 2010 article in Rolling Stone, and the inquiry’s final review challenged the accuracy of the profile of McChrystal, who was the top commander in Afghanistan.
I would believe the Rolling Stone before the Pentagon or Amerikan press.
Related: Afghanistan: Change of Command
Also see:
McChrystal was Cheney's Chief Assassin
What Works for AmeriKa in Afghanistan
Not really much of a change in policy despite the shuffling.
The article, headlined “The Runaway General,’’ quoted people identified as senior aides to the general making disparaging statements about members of President Obama’s national security team....
The writer, Michael Hastings, and his editors have repeatedly defended the article’s accuracy. Eric Bates, the executive editor of Rolling Stone, said yesterday that he had not seen the Pentagon’s final inquiry but that the magazine stood by the article as factually correct....
Seeing correct facts is so rare in the newspaper.
There are significant gaps between what was reported by Rolling Stone and what was found by the inspector general, but for the military, the inspector general’s findings close the case on an episode that ended McChrystal’s career and threatened to rupture relations between the nation’s civilian leadership and the general officer corps....
That's what I'm going to do with this piece, and what I often do after opening the Globe and glancing at it these days.
McChrystal is now teaching at Yale and giving lectures....
Related: Saluting Stanley McChrystal
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Also see:
Globe Editorial Other people’s gossip
Maybe that's why I'm not reading much of the Boston Globe anymore.
