Robert Gates agrees to stay on as Defense chief under Obama
A TIME OF TRANSITION
Obama is apparently ready to choose another military leader with bipartisan support, Marine Gen. James L. Jones, for national security advisor.
Reporting from Washington — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has agreed to serve in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet, advisors said Tuesday, setting up the unusual situation in which a wartime Pentagon chief remains to work under a president who has condemned the previous administration's policies.
An official close to the Obama transition team said it was likely that Gates would be named Defense secretary when the president-elect begins to unveil his national security team in announcements expected next week.
A former government official who has advised the Obama transition said that it was "99% certain" that Gates would remain as Defense secretary for about a year in the Obama administration.
"Nothing is definitive," said the former official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing transition plans. "But Gates did agree to stay on."
Advisors also said that Obama appeared poised to name Gen. James L. Jones, a former Marine commandant and onetime supreme allied commander of NATO, as his national security advisor.
In both men, Obama apparently has settled on respected defense leaders who have worked well with ranking officials of both major political parties and would have been welcomed in either a Democratic or Republican White House.
In two years as Defense secretary, Gates has stepped off a considerable distance from the approach and policies of his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and projected an image of independence from President Bush, including over the nation's ongoing wars.
As early as his Senate confirmation hearing, Gates shunned the administration's stubborn insistence that it was winning the war in Iraq, and has represented a potent check against White House troop strategies.
But along with his nonpartisan appeal, Gates is valued as a careful steward whose execution of White House policy is marked by caution and an aversion to acting precipitously. For Obama, who wants to remove U.S. combat brigades quickly, support from Gates would provide considerable credibility for the new administration's policies.
Talk of a possible partnership between Obama and Gates has circulated since early this year. But for much of that time, military officials have voiced concern over Obama's proposed timetable for withdrawal.
However, a recent accord between U.S. and Iraqi officials sets a withdrawal timeline similar to Obama's proposal, narrowing differences between the two sides in the debate and easing military resistance to Obama.
