Obama to name 5 new Pentagon brass, Hillary Clinton suggested as one

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Some suggest Hillary Clinton for Defense Sec. when Gates steps down early in 2011.

• 11/8, "Job openings at Pentagon give President Obama chance to shape military," AOL News by Andrea Stone

"Here's one place with plenty of job openings: the "E" Ring of the Pentagon.

• In the next several months,

the secretary of defense and four of the six uniformed members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are expected to retire.

• This kind of mass exodus of military brass is "virtually unheard of," said John Ullyot, a Republican strategist and former spokesman for the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It's very rare to have so many service chiefs up" all at once, he said.

"Even in peacetime this would be a lot of turnover, a lot of change for the biggest part of the discretionary budget. But in wartime it's even more complicated and needs to be done with great care to ensure that there's a smooth transition," Ullyot said.

• The changes in command come as President Barack Obama faces major decision points in the Afghanistan war and prepares to joust with a new, more adversarial Congress over defense spending and his intention to lift the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.

"This is where the president makes a lasting impact upon defense policy," said retired Army Col. and military analyst Kenneth Allard,

• referring to the Joint Chiefs.

Among the tasks they will carry out, "priorities clearly must respect the need for a leaner, meaner DOD, including the next wave of procurement reform" and winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Allard added.

• Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a Republican holdover from the Bush administration, is expected to step down in early 2011,

and the guessing game about Obama's choice for a successor has been a Washington pastime for months.
Except for Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz, whose term is up in 2012, Obama will soon have his own hand-picked team at the Pentagon.

• Obama recently named a new commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos. The gruff-talking Marine is already in hot water with Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, for publicly questioning the president's intention to allow gays to serve openly.

Despite Amos' remarks, which are in line with the views of his predecessor, the president is likely to look for senior officers who

• "understand that when the commander in chief says do it, you shut up and do it," said Heather Hurlburt, executive director of the National Security Network, a liberal defense think tank. ...

"Obama needs a defense secretary who can insulate him from partisan attacks over national security," Thompson said. "Robert Gates has served that purpose well,

• but the president can't pick another Republican without offending his core supporters."

Hurlburt said the next defense secretary must command "the respect of the Pentagon, the respect of the White House and the respect of Congress and [be able to] stare down any or all of them if need be."

• Thompson is among those who say "the most obvious choice" is Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"She is tough, smart and well regarded by the troops," he said. "She understands the current state of play in U.S. strategy and learned a great deal about military programs while serving in the Senate."

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a West Point graduate who serves on the Armed Services Committee,

is reported to have turned down the job."...
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• via MichaelSavage.com

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