Good Gates Article
Bob Gates did a fantastic job putting back together a Department of Defense shattered by Donald Rumsfeld. I remember being frankly shocked when arriving in Washington that conservative defense and military folks held equally anti-Rumsfeld views as a dyed-in-the-wool anti-war liberal. Before then I had always viewed Rumsfeld as a brilliant but Machiavellian verging onto evil figure who had to be stopped because of his role in Iraq. The insider outrage at Rumsfeld revealed to me that the man was an egomaniacal idiot who through his own stupidity was single-handed destroying the military, regardless of Iraq’s merits.
Despite being light-years better than Rumsfeld, I do have to say that initially I was discouraged by Obama’s choice to have Gates continue at DOD. Looking back, though, my reasons were purely partisan. I’m sick and tired of the dead-wrong idea that conservatives (ie. anyone that’s a Republican) are the only ones who can protect our country (I think it’s the exact opposite). However, Gates is actually a fairly apolitical technocrat and if this Washington Post article is any indication, agrees with me on a some very important stuff.
I think there still is an image problem, because Gates was initially a Republican appointee and will be viewed as a Republican. But the image problem should (and fortunately does) take a back seat to making sure the right thing is done, which I’m confident that Gates will do.
Additionally, I doubt he’ll stick around for eight years (*blogger crosses fingers for eight years of Obama*), leaving Obama able to choose a true progressive to follow Gates.
*Completely unrelated side note* You’d think that the word “blogger” wouldn’t trip off WordPress’s spellcheck….
