President-elect Barack Obama announced Monday that Robert Gates would remain as defense secretary, making President Bush’s Pentagon chief his own as he seeks to wind down the U.S. role in Iraq. Obama picked former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.
At a news conference, Obama also introduced retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security.
The announcements rounded out the top tier of the team that will advise the incoming chief executive on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe.
The president-elect, reprising a campaign vow, said he would give the military a new mission as soon as he takes office: “responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transtion to Iraqi control.” He did not mention his oft-repeated pledge to withdraw most U.S. combat trooops within 16 months.
Obama also appointed campaign foreign policy aide Susan Rice as his ambassador to the United Nations. Obama said he would make her a member of the Cabinet, an increase in stature from the Bush era.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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3 Responses
I can’t figure out what would Robert Gates see in serving in such a cabinet. But, my biggest fear is that if there is another terrorist attack, chas v’shalom in U.S. soil, that Barack Obama will react the same way that David Dinkins reacted towards the riots in Crown Heights, saying something like the residents have to let out their frustration.
Why?? In what is starting out as a very good assembly of staff, why would Obama want Hillary as Secretary of State. She does not work well with other people and has no experience, let alone strong experience in world affairs. Bad move!
No bacci40, Gates sees a long term future in speaking engagements and private consulting contracts. You only have enough brain space to insult and abuse those who blog on who are more informed than you and who are also conservative.