Security

Pentagon Preps for Obama Transition (Updated)

As the ballots were cast yesterday, Jim Garamone of American Forces Press Service reported that Pentagon officials were already making room for the president-elect’s transition team. This is the first wartime transition of power since the Vietnam War, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has created a task force to ensure a smooth transition. Among other […]

Gates
As the ballots were cast yesterday, Jim Garamone of American Forces Press Service reported that Pentagon officials were already making room for the president-elect's transition team. This is the first wartime transition of power since the Vietnam War, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has created a task force to ensure a smooth transition.

Among other things, Garamone reports that Gates was surveying top political appointees within the building to see who might be willing to stick around until their successors can take over. He quotes Pentagon flack Bryan Whitman as saying: “There are a number of people that have given an indication that if they were asked to stay on and serve as a bridge after Jan. 20 until their replacement is on board, they would do so.”

The Washington Post adds that Obama's advisers are now "debating whether to ask Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to stay on, to allow planning for a withdrawal from Iraq to begin as soon as possible." Keeping Gates on might be a common-sense move. As Noah wrote here back in June: "[S]ince Gates has been brought in, things have started to turn.
Budgets have begun to return to reality. People lose their jobs when they can't do them right. Experts in their fields are being heard.
Sound policy is often trumping adherence to political orthodoxy. And the Pentagon is slowly, slowly starting to focus on today's wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq."

Former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, one of Obama's top national security advisers and another possible candidate for SecDef, seems to agree. We'll keep a close eye on this as Obama assembles the new administration.

UPDATE: Noah here. [Inside Defense](http://insidedefense.com) has more details on the transition:

*The Joint Chiefs of Staff were meeting early this week to finalize a briefing that details eight to 10 issues -- largely dealing with policy -- that require the immediate attention of the incoming administration...
*

*A complete presentation of Pentagon issues to Obama's transition team could come as soon as next week...
*

*Danzig will work with Obama to identify nearly 50 candidates for
Pentagon posts that require Senate confirmation, the bulk of which are in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Eight are in the Army and seven each are in the Air Force and Navy. *

And *GovExec *has some advice for the Obamanauts: Love your civil servants.

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