Gates-Keeping

With the imminent naming of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, the retention of Robert Gates at Defense will raise questions about exactly what Barack Obama means by "change."

One thing is clear: The new president does not equate change with personal revenge (Joe Lieberman's survival even more than Clinton's appointment proves that) or even, as with Gates, new faces.

Idealistic as he may be, Obama is also a pragmatist and keeping Gates is a practical solution during the necessary emphasis on the economy in the early days of the new administration.

Next week, Obama will be naming the rest of his foreign-policy team, which will reorient our Middle East policy away from Iraq toward the dangers posed by Afghanistan and Pakistan. In his two years at Defense, Gates has clearly been as realistic as could be expected, while serving Bush, on that subject.

Moreover, as soon as he replaced Rumsfeld, he saved American lives by giving priority to mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks (MRAPs) that had been stalled for two years by Pentagon bureaucrats and, in succeeding months, aligned himself with Condoleeza Rice in blunting the push of Cheney's Neo-Cons for attacking Iran.

"Off with their heads" ideologues won't be satisfied by the arguments for retaining Gates, but he will be a reassuring figure as Obama goes about saving the economy and getting us out of Iraq.

The Blunder Bus Rolls On

The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld top command had plenty of company in mismanaging the war in Iraq, a Pentagon study shows.

Hundreds of U.S. Marines were killed or injured by roadside bombs when Marine Corps bureaucrats refused urgent requests in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles.

The study disclosed today by the AP accuses the service of "gross mismanagement" that delayed deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks for more than two years.

Stateside paper shufflers sidetracked orders for the heavily armored MRAPs that could have prevented casualties from the IEDs that were decimating US troops on the basis of their cost of almost $1 million each to expedite plans for lighter vehicles still on the drawing board.

Without the knowledge of the Marine Corps Commandant, a field General's requests were sent to a civilian logistics official in suburban Washington. "As a result," the study contends, "there was more concern over how the MRAP would upset the Marine Corps' supply and maintenance chains than there was in getting the troops a truck that would keep them alive."

It was only when current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made the trucks the top priority last year that the vehicles started to be shipped in large quantities.

More than 800 Marines have been killed and almost 8400 wounded in Iraq, most of them by explosive devices. The former Marine officer who wrote the report had to file for whistle-blower protection last year with the US Office of Special Counsel after being threatened with disciplinary action for meeting with Congressional staff members.

The Corps seems to have moved more swiftly to protect bureaucrats and their bosses than troops in the field.