Obama reverses Bush on Pentagon succession

[sabra]

Source: Denver Post

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has quietly reviewed, and revised, the sequence in which Pentagon civilian officials would take command should Defense Secretary Robert Gates die unexpectedly, say in a surprise attack.

An executive order published without fanfare this month does away with a system for succession instituted by President George W. Bush that played down the service secretaries and elevated positions held by trusted aides to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, as he wanted.

Obama's executive order, published March 1, re-establishes the Army secretary in the No. 3 slot, behind the deputy defense secretary.


Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_14688921

[Newsjock]

1. Please, mouth-breathers ...

... go ahead and try to make an issue out of this. Really. "Obama's treasonous changes at the Defense Department weaken the security of the homeland and play directly into the hands of al-Qaida."

What's the over/under on how many hours before someone really says this?

[Demit]

5. Seems to me the mouth-breathers have succeeded in one thing—

Getting you to waste time putting everything into their frame of reference. Congratulations! You're now not only putting your energy into thinking like them, you're giving them helpful things they could say.

[AlbertCat]

7. Seems to me the mouth-breathers have succeeded in one thing—

Making "Demit" waste time chiding people for nothing.

[Demit]

13. No, AlbertCat, it's for something.

It's for giving people—the 'mouthbreathers'—more power than they should have. The poster is giving them legitimacy. He's showing us that he accepts the power they have. By always anticipating the objections your opponents will have to what you want to do, you dilute your own power. You are constantly in a defensive posture.

[Enrique]

8. Glenn Beck will be all over this

he'll find a connection to Mao and George Soros.

[backtomn]

15. This matters......HOW??

Can you tell me the reason that this matters to anyone, much less the nation?? I doubt it.

Maybe it is a bunch of "mouth-breathers" that are saying "what difference does it make". Does hating Donald Rumsfeld really make this decision good???.....does it make the decision relevant?? I don't see how this matters to anyone.....mouth-breather or not.

Can we focus on something that matters, rather than something that APPEARS to criticize Rumsfeld?? Next issue......

[Renew Deal]

2. The level of cronyism and corruption from the Bush years will take forever to clean up.

And this is another positive step.

[Zenlitened]

9. Yep. K&R

[dmr]

3. This makes sense.

The change Bush* made ran smack with cronyism, or territorial to continue the madness of Rumsfeld.

[Flipper999]

4. Finally

A tiny bit of good news.

[Schema Thing]

6. lol, it just shows the absurd level of masturbatory thinking Rumsfeld engaged in

"oooh, now, let's imagine the bad guys take me out. How can we ensure my important legacy and confer my needed vision of leadership onto America?".

Douche.

[frylock]

10. something positive..

knr

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. I disagree with this.

Not with the change back, but with it being done QUIETLY.

I think every move to roll back the Bushco fascism should be shouted to the heavens.

[groundloop]

12. I respect President Obama for not bragging up his actions, but at the same time he needs to

I've always disliked people who tend to brag about all the great stuff they do, and there's alot of good things President Obama has accomplished which we don't hear about. HOWEVER, this is politics and the Democrats need to put more of this out in public for all to see.

[No Elephants]

19. +1 Especially something like this. I bet the original change (to Rumsfeld's cronies (then

Gates's ccronies) was done quietly.

I would not be surprised if Gates suggested Obama change it back, especially since Gates wants to step down as soon as he can (or so he said, when he accepted Obama's nomination).

[LiberalFighter]

14. Stephen Cambone was the scumbag that held the next slot in succession.

From what I could tell he had no military background.

[yurbud]

16. did Gates fire Rumsfeld's ''trusted aides''?

[deacon]

17. k + r n/t

[Solly Mack]

18. k/r

[Roland99]

20. That's a phrase that should be seen on a weekly basis.

"Obama reverses Bush...."

Sadly, though, it's a rare breed.

[wmbrew0206]

21. It is actually the Secretary of the Army, not the Army secretary

As far as whether this is a good thing or not, I'd rather have a very senior SES or Secretary of the Joint Chiefs to be the #3 man. The reason is that all the Secretaries of the Services are service centric, and it would probably be better to have an Secretary that is totally focused on the joint aspects of all the services.