defense secretary

Last night the New York Times published a late night bombshell:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.

Several officials said the highly classified analysis, written in January to President Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, came in the midst of an intensifying effort inside the Pentagon, the White House and the intelligence agencies to develop new options for Mr. Obama. They include a set of military alternatives, still under development, to be considered should diplomacy and sanctions fail to force Iran to change course.

Officials familiar with the memo’s contents would describe only portions dealing with strategy and policy, and not sections that apparently dealt with secret operations against Iran, or how to deal with Persian Gulf allies.

I’m sure we will hear a lot of right wingers saying this is a failure of the Obama administration and his policies towards Iran, but let’s think a little further into history. Iran revved up their nuclear ambitions in 2003. A majority of President Bush’s tenure was having to figure out how to deal with a nuclear Iran, yet they never came up with a plan either. If so, then we would have a plan. So all this started before President Obama was even Senator Obama.

And 2003 is an important year to remember, since that’s the year that we invaded Iraq and changed the political landscape of that part of the Middle East. Any plans that existed at the time were pretty much nullified with the changes that were happening by the tip of our sword.

Why? Because if you make any kind of living before trying to get confirmed to the government then you are under fire:

The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies, according to financial disclosures released Wednesday.

But that isn’t enough. You also better hope that none of the companies you work for have any kind of tax problems:

The panel is seeking information on his relationship to a nonprofit firm called EduCap Inc. that is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. EduCap and a sister firm donated $50,000 to Mr. Panetta's institute and provided flights on its corporate jet to Mr. Daschle and other Washington figures.

This is just amazing and I blame the Democrats for it. Why aren’t they out there hammering the Republicans about this? “Why are the Republicans holding up the confirmation of someone heading our intelligence agency during a time of war?” Instead they pussy foot around and the Republicans start hammering their messages home.

Hell I remember back during all the bird flu stuff. The government was pushing a vaccine from a single company that so happened to be the very company Donald Rumsfeld ran before becoming Defense Secretary. But that was fine and dandy – I mean he had to make a living before government – right? That’s what the Republicans say, but that seems to have changed now.

No big surprise here:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay on under President-elect Barack Obama, according to officials in both parties. Obama plans to announce a national-security team early next week that includes Gates at the Pentagon and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state, officials said.

Retired Marine Gen. James Jones, former Marine commandant and commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, will be named national security adviser, the officials said.

I think it’s a good move. Keeping someone around who might know where the bodies are buried can be beneficial.

Isn't that what they say about the war in Iraq? I guess the bloody part is right:

A car bomb killed 33 people in northern Iraq on Sunday, security officials said, hours before U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Baghdad to assess recent security gains and discuss troop levels.

A U.S. military spokesman said the blast occurred near an Iraqi army checkpoint in the town of Balad. Iraqi Colonel Hamadi Atshan said the bomb hit a checkpoint run by Sunni Arab volunteers who have joined U.S. forces to fight al Qaeda.

The war goes on, just as the spin does. And now that McCain has Kristol advising him, you can bet they will be ready to launch attacks on half the world and give us more Iraqs. Isn't the GOP great?

Yesterday our defense secretary, Robert Gates, blamed NATO for the problems in Afghanistan. Needless to say they didn't take to kindly to that criticism and now Gates is trying to save face:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that sending U.S. Marines to Afghanistan will keep pressure on the Taliban and doesn't "reflect dissatisfaction" with NATO countries' performance.

He was trying to smooth over comments a day earlier that sparked an international furor. The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Gates said U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan are doing a terrific job but that he is concerned that NATO allies are not well-trained in counterinsurgency operations.

"Allied forces ... have stepped up to the plate and are playing a significant and powerful role in Afghanistan," Gates told a Defense Department news conference, which officials said had purposely been rescheduled for earlier in the day Thursday to meet European news deadlines.

Great! Why don't the Iraqi parliament take another month off then!

Iraqi legislators suspended parliamentary sessions Thursday until the end of the month because of the Muslim religious season _ the end of much-delayed efforts to pass U.S.-backed legislation aimed at achieving national reconciliation this year.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, welcomed a report from his top commander in Iraq that violence has declined 60 percent in the last six months. But Gates warned that "people are getting impatient" for the Iraqi government to take advantage of improved security and move toward needed political reforms.

The Sunni speaker of parliament announced the decision to suspend sessions after days of debate over a draft bill that would allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to their government jobs. The measure is among the 18 benchmarks set by the United States to encourage reconciliation.

At this rate the polar ice caps will melt before Iraq gets their shit together.

This was Bush's latest threat today:

Bush said the Defense Department will soon send Congress a request to transfer $1.6 billion (€1.2 billion) from other military accounts to cover funding for troops — a move needed, he said, because lawmakers have delayed his emergency spending request. He warned that continued delays would undermine troop training, slow the repair of equipment and force soldiers to serve longer tours of duty.

Catch that? I emphasized the key part. If the Democrats don't give Bush the money (you know - the money he won't veto), then our troops could have their tours extended.

Damn those Democrats - how dare they do that to our troops!

But wait! Tonight ABC News reports this:

ABC News has learned that the Pentagon is considering extending the tours of duty for every active duty soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Forget small extensions and trickles of National Guard troops. Under the proposal, deployments for active duty soldiers would be extended from the current 12 months to 15 months. Senior Defense Department officials say the idea has already been presented to Defense Secretary Gates. A decision is expected as early as this week.

"These soldiers have paid the price for this policy for four years. Now they are being given an additional burden to bear, and it will be a cause of concern for the soldiers and even more so for the families," says retired Gen. William Nash.

So money or no money, the Pentagon is already looking at extending the tours, because they need it for Bush's surge. It says that right here:

For a President and Secretary of Defense who always talk so highly of their working relationship with the military, I wonder how they will respond to this:

The Army's top officer withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus its other global commitments without billions in additional funding.

The decision by Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, is believed to be unprecedented and signals a widespread belief within the Army that in the absence of significant troop withdrawals from Iraq, funding assumptions must be completely reworked, say current and former Pentagon officials.

"This is unusual, but hell, we're in unusual times," said a senior Pentagon official involved in the budget discussions.

Schoomaker failed to submit the budget plan by an Aug. 15 deadline. The protest followed a series of cuts in the service's funding requests by both the White House and Congress over the last four months.

According to a senior Army official involved in budget talks, Schoomaker is now seeking $138.8 billion in 2008, nearly $25 billion above budget limits originally set by Rumsfeld. The Army's budget this year is $98.2 billion, making Schoomaker's request a 41% increase over current levels.

So is this some sort of election year ploy- don't give the army what they want so Bush still looks like a conservative? Perhaps it was another election year case of "saving face". Just think of the military having to ask for this much more for this war that is "going so well" in Iraq.