Obama's War Cabinet, WSJ Says

The names floated for Barack Obama's national security team "are drawn exclusively from conservative, centrist and pro-military circles without even a single -- yes, not one! -- chosen to represent the antiwar wing of the Democratic party." In his plaintive post this week on the Nation magazine's Web site, Robert Dreyfuss indulges in the political left's wonderful talent for overstatement. But who are we to interfere with his despair?

If reports are correct, on Monday the President-elect will ask Robert Gates to stay on as Secretary of Defense and name retired Marine General James Jones as National Security Adviser. These are the Administration posts most critical to the successful conduct of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to possible entanglements with Iran, North Korea and who knows who else. With these personnel picks, Mr. Obama reveals a bias for competence, experience and continuity. Hence the caterwauls from his left flank.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[mjjcpa]

OMG

He's keeping a Bush appointee.

Some change?

I thought he was going to end all this war-mongering.

[benndissed]

obama's 'war cabinet' are hawks who will continue to be a drain on what's left of our wealth.

[benndissed]

the clintons will make sure we remain status quo. iraq war will probably go on and on and on.....

[theone718]

We just won by a complete landslide and are still getting trashed by the lame ducks of the WSJ. I do agree that I put Competence over party affiliation though.

[larry278]

The WSWS will accept letters from radical progressives admitting that they should have voted for White/VanAuen, not Obama/Biden on 11/4/08. Just because the neo-cons said that Obama was a socialist didn't make him a socialist or even a radical progressive. The radical progressives have been had by Obama. There was a lot of evidence before 9/15/08 that Obama was a capitalist. Now it's certain that Obama is a capitalism. Obama aspires to save capitalism in America as FDR did. BHO isn't a clone of FDR. Obama's program, regardless of what it may be called, New Deal II. BHO aims to create a program for the 21st century to meet the changes in capitalism & the world of finance. Multi-national companies are the norm now. The world of finance is an electonic world, for want of a better term. Regulating capitalism requires international regulations which are coordinated among the requlators of each nation. For many, if not all, this unexplored ground. There is no map. Which comes 1st the regulations or the new & correct map of capitalism? That is going to be one our more challenging problems.

[DrBillo]

Liberals will soon come to the conclusion that the man of change is a conservative and they have been fooled through the whole process of electing a President--

[brokenarrow]

Typical WSJ / Rupert Murdoch style. The title of this article makes me almost uncomfortable as clicking on a link to that site......which is why I never, EVAH, do.

[mick7191]

Well, we are at war. If we stop and pull out, do you really think these people would stop trying to kill Americans and not try to execute an attack over here? These are not reasonable people. They are religious kooks who don't care if they die and take as many people with them as possible. Anyone who thinks they will just quit is delusional. Take it from a Democrat. We have to keep the pressure on and finish this. We have to trust President O.

[MyTake]

War Cabinet, right!

Both are are "on loan" from the CFR who supplies 80+% of Administration positions regardless of what party takes power.

Imagine, this 3000 CFR membership both sponsored and controlled by the Rockefeller syndicate comprises the shadow government of the United States.

Let's just contract government out to CFR and keep a warm body in the White House for photo-ops!

[Bustinurbal]

Are you insinuating that obama is a real elected president? You sound more intelligent than believing that this puppet president elect is any different than the dozen or so before him. They all are bought and paid for by the zio.nists.

[polaris12]

The WSJ article pridefully states that, "Having pacified al Qaeda and the Sunni insurgency, America now has a chance to midwife Iraq into a stable and free ally in the middle of a bad neighborhood." This is the same neocon delusion that we have been working on since 2003. It hasn't worked and won't work, despite all the cheerleading from the right. Large numbers of people (Iraqis) are still being killed every day in Iraq, although the MSM pretends that all is well. We bought off the Sunni insurgency, but what happens when we can no longer afford the bribes? Bush has managed to ensure that we will be stuck with Iraq around our necks for decades, unless Obama follows up on his campaign pledge to get us out once and for all. We can only hope Obama uses the political camouflage provided by Gates and Jones to protect himself from the flacks on the right like the WSJ.

[elcojonu]

The 'Surge', ah the ' Surge '; folks please understand that a surge in manpower in a field of battle is a Tactic, not a Strategy.
The Surge was designed to cut down the number of guerrilla atacks in certain urban settings, not to 'Win' the war.
The French used it in Algiers during the Algerian war and wound up losing that war ; just like we'll do in Iraq once we pull out.
In a way, you could say that a ' Surge' is an admission to the enemy that you can not win the war and will settle for some peace and quiet in a restricted area. It also gives the enemy time to regroup, retrain and reorganize( as occurred in Algeria ).
The ' Surge ' is nothing more than putting off the inevitable admission of an upcoming defeat; don't believe anyone who tells you different.

[inluvwkeitholbermann]

as long as obama appoints competent people to carry out the correct missions (i.e. LlKE D0N'T BL0W UP THE WR0NG C0UNTRY BECAUSE G0D TOLD Y0U T0) i don't care if the appointees are from the left or the right

[troykendal]

General James Jones should also take into consideration the importance of "international security", incorporating all the diverse ways in which America can lead the world.

[Coinyer101]

whatever. i have better trust in wes clark or chuck hagel.

[theone718]

You don't even KNOW General James Jones.

[darthdarcy]

You know that word "Continuity" is a loaded gun and the password to dictatorship..under NSPD-51 and HSPD-20...

Now it seems to me if you create and War Cabinet then it's unlikely they'll work towards Peace..

Do we actually want "continuity" with the worst administration in modern America history..?

[Coinyer101]

no. not at all!

[Coinyer101]

16 months and most of our troops had better be out of iraq. that's one year and 4 months. if he does not begin bringing 1-2 brigades /month out, then his support will steadily drop. he will gain some republican support . but he will lose a lot of anti-war supporters. just an opinion.

[ID-TenTango]

They will be out before 2012 because of the 2011 deadline but most will be reassigned to Afghanistan on rotational schedules, not to their garrison bases.

Also, he's already losing support on the anti-war front and he hasn't even taken office yet. I know the ones I'm personally in contact with are fuming over his selections. Then again they live in Pasadena and LA and think the world revolves around them.

[Coinyer101]

you are not nostradamus. stop acting like you know what will happen.my concerns are his picks wont push his foreign policy, forward,while he is swamped with domestic problems . many of which were caused by 2 wars and tax cuts for wealthy.