美国防部长盖茨可能留任
Obama, Seeking Experience,To Keep Gates As Defense Secy2008年11月26日
President-elect Barack Obama's security team came into sharper focus, with officials confirming that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would retain his job and that retired Marine Gen. James Jones would likely join the incoming administration as national security adviser.
The picks, which are expected to be formally announced in Chicago Monday, signal Mr. Obama's desire for experience and continuity with the nation embroiled in two wars.
The probable appointments - along with Sen. Hillary Clinton's likely ascension to the secretary of state position - also mean that Mr. Obama is entrusting his foreign policy to centrist figures who have at times advocated policies that were more hawkish than his own.
Lawmakers from both parties had been urging Mr. Obama to retain Mr. Gates for weeks, arguing that it would improve the new administration's ability to oversee the war effort. It would also put a Republican in the cabinet of a president who promised to bridge partisan divides.
Mr. Obama appears to have made a similar calculus in asking Gen. Jones to be his national security adviser. The former North Atlantic Treaty Organization supreme commander and Marine Corps commandant hasn't decided whether to take the job, but people close to him said the general appears likely to accept.
The job would make Gen. Jones, a nonpartisan figure, the chief policy coordinator between the State Department, the Pentagon and other national security agencies.
Gen. Jones would become the first former military general to serve as a president's top White House adviser since retired Gen. Colin Powell worked alongside President Reagan 20 years ago. He is close to Sen. Clinton, and has close ties to many lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where he worked for years as a Marine liaison.
Gen. Jones also has deep knowledge of two of the biggest challenges Mr. Obama will face in his first term: the need to redesign America's energy infrastructure and the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
Mr. Obama's decision to retain Mr. Gates, while expected, is the clearest indication to date of the incoming administration's thinking about Iraq and Afghanistan. The defense secretary has opposed a firm timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq, so his appointment could mean that Mr. Obama was further moving away from his campaign promise to remove most troops from Iraq by mid-2010.
The two men largely see eye-to-eye on Afghanistan, which will be the new administration's main national security priority. Like the president-elect, Mr. Gates supports deploying more troops to Afghanistan, and he has already said he will try to meet the top American commander in Afghanistan's request for at least 20,000 additional troops next year.
Yochi J. Dreazen / Neil King Jr.
美国国防部长盖茨可能留任
美
国当选总统奥巴马新政府的安全团队构成更加明晰了。有官员证实，现任国防部长盖茨将留任，已退休的原美国海军陆战队司令琼斯可能任国家安全顾问。
Associated Press 国防部长盖茨已在布什政府任职两年
预计奥巴马将于下周一在芝加哥正式宣布上述提名。目前美国身陷两场战争，奥巴马的提名显示他注重候选人的经验，并希望保持国防政策的连续性。
对这两人的任命，加上希拉里?克林顿有望获国务卿提名，这些还意味着奥巴马将把他的外交政策托付给中间派人士，这些人士有时提倡的政策比奥巴马本人还强硬。
民主、共和两党议员几周来一直敦促奥巴马将盖茨留任，他们认为这将有助于提高新政府监督战事的能力。它还将使新内阁中有一位共和党人。奥巴马在竞选时承诺弥合两党分歧。
奥巴马选择琼斯作为其国家安全顾问似乎也有类似的考虑。这位前北约最高指挥官和美国海军陆战队司令尚未决定是否接受任命，但据接近他的人士透露，他有可能接受。
这项任命将使超党派人士琼斯成为国务院、五角大楼和其他国家安全相关部门之间的政策协调人。
琼斯将成为继鲍威尔之后第一位在白宫担任总统高级顾问的前军方人士。鲍威尔20年前曾担任里根总统的顾问。琼斯与希拉里关系密切，与国会的许多议员也有很深的联系。他曾作为海军陆战队联络官在国会工作数年。
琼斯对奥巴马在其第一个任期内面临的两大难题也有深入的了解。两大挑战之一是重新设计美国能源基础架构，二是仍在进行的阿富汗战争。
奥巴马留任盖茨的决定虽然在预料之中，但它最清楚不过地表明了即将就任的新一届政府在伊拉克和阿富汗问题上的想法。盖茨一直反对为美军撤出伊拉克制定明确的时间表，因此，留任盖茨可能意味着，奥巴马将远离在竞选时所作的在2010年年中之前将大部分驻军撤出伊拉克的承诺。
奥巴马和盖茨在阿富汗问题上意见大体一致，这一问题将是新政府在国家安全问题上的当务之急。盖茨与奥巴马一样支持在阿富汗派驻更多军队，而且他曾表示将尽量满足美国驻阿最高指挥官提出的明年至少增派2万名驻军的请求。
页:
[1]