Gates Would Stop Pentagon Control Of Intelligence

by Steve

I know that many people are uneasy with the nomination of Robert Gates as Rummy's replacement because of his role in Iran/Contra and his ties to the Bush 41 crowd. But there appears to be one vast upside to the move: based on his background at the Agency and his previous writings in support of a separation of intelligence from military control, he will stop and reverse the Rumsfeld/Cheney power grab by the Pentagon over intelligence gathering and funding.

I'm not doing cartwheels over the idea of Gates, his Iran/Contra compatriot John Negroponte, and Michael Hayden all working together as our last bastion against a military state, but if my choices the next two years are these guys working together apart from a neutered Dick Cheney under the oversight of a Democratic congress, or Rummy and Cheney working on their own without any oversight at all, I'll take the former hands down. And I eagerly await the removal and departure by any means of Rummy's lackeys in the E-ring any day now.