Robert Gates says he's going to focus on closing Git-mo and accelerating our withdrawal from Iraq.
You know what's an odd upshot of naming Gates as the new SecDef? He gets to say what he wants now, even though he still works for Bush. It's as though Obama freed Gates to start pushing for Obama's defense policy under President Bush. Maybe that's part of the SOFA breakthrough? I hesitate to speculate, because I've never been in a Defense Department or a State Department, or in Iraq. But there's something about Gates' new dual role of being both Bush's Sec Def and Obama's Sec Def that gives Bush more leeway than, for instance, General Shinsekei.
