New Military Policies?

When Obama was running for office, his staff included many capable progressive advisors.  When elected, however, I think the ‘business as usual” Democrats warned him that his team of progressive outsiders did not have the inside credibility to get anything done, that he would become like Jimmy Carter, a President who accomplished little, despite being the most honorable President in my lifetime.  Frankly, I think Obama fell for their line and installed insiders from the Clinton and Bush camps in key positions instead of the progressive advisors that helped him win the White House.  One such is Robert Gates at Defense.  Gates has never cleaned house, and most of the civilian chain of command under him, as well as the military command structure, are holdovers from the Bush Regime.  That may change.

With critical decisions ahead on the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is about to receive an unusual opportunity to reshape the Pentagon’s leadership, naming a new defense secretary as well as several top generals and admirals in the next several months.

It is a rare confluence of tenure calendars and personal calculations, coming midway through Mr. Obama’s first term and on the heels of an election that challenged his domestic policies. His choices could have lasting consequences for his national security agenda, perhaps strengthening his hand over a military with which he has often clashed, and are likely to have an effect beyond the next election, whether he wins or loses.

That is all the more reason that Mr. Obama’s choices are certain to face scrutiny in a narrowly divided Senate, whose Republican leadership has declared itself intent on defeating him.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said he plans to retire next year, while the terms of four members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are scheduled to end: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman; Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman; Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief; and Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations.

Andrew J. Bacevich, a retired Army officer who is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, said this round of replacements, coming after two years of difficult and sometimes intense wrangling over how to carry on the war in Afghanistan, “is particularly important, and is likely to prove particularly difficult.”

“The challenge facing the president,” Mr. Bacevich said, “will be to identify leaders who will provide him with disinterested advice, informed by a concern for the national interest, and, in doing so, to avoid either the appearance or the reality of politicizing the senior leadership.”

At the top of the new pantheon of military power, the president needs a heavyweight to succeed Mr. Gates, an unexpected holdover from the Bush administration who stayed longer than many expected to become perhaps the most influential member of the Obama cabinet.

White House officials say the president is not prepared to announce any decisions on his new slate of Pentagon and military leaders for next year… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Obama has an opportunity here to mend fences with the people who put him in the White House, and we should watch carefully (and influence) whom he chooses.  However, we know Senate Republicans will try to block any appointees to the left of Goebbels, making filibuster reform imperative, and highlighting the need for a Majority Leader in the Senate who will do more than hump the Republican leg, whine, and roll over.