Des nominations dans une période trouble...
UNDER EVERY president, top national-security officials move around or are replaced, but impending personnel changes in the Obama administration come amid profound global upheaval and unforgiving domestic fiscal pressures. In tapping Leon Panetta — currently the CIA director and formerly the nation’s budget chief — as the next secretary of defense, President Obama recognized the connection between preserving security and getting the defense budget down to a rational size.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration who once ran the CIA, has valuable credibility with Republicans and hawkish Democrats. And by supporting reasonable, though insufficient, cuts in defense spending, Gates helped make the argument that the Pentagon must be subject to the same budget discipline as other federal programs. Yet Panetta will still have to oversee reductions in expensive weapons systems that are of little use for the actual conflicts US forces confront — but nonetheless enjoy political support within the military and in Congress. He will have to push for closing many of the hundreds of bases around the world that serve little purpose today.
Two other looming appointments look good on paper: David Petraeus, Obama’s choice to replace Panetta at CIA, has been open-minded and innovative as a military commander in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ryan Crocker, who dealt skillfully with diverse interests as US ambassador to Iraq, will likely do the same as ambassador to Afghanistan. In tapping Crocker, Petraeus, and Panetta, the president settled on the best available options to confront the monumental challenges at hand.
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