Thursday, April 28, 2011

Obama brings in the hatchet man

For those who may be paying attention, Secretary of defense Gates has already cut the Pentagon and defense budgets to the bone, but apparently that wasn't good enough for the white house. Gates was a holdover from the Bush administration and nothing short of a yes man to begin with, even when he was nominated by Bush, but look at what is happening now that he has served his purpose.

Gates apparently balked at devastating the American military by further budget cuts. Not a problem, simply get rid of him and bring in Panetta. Leon Panetta, a man known for knowing absolutely less than nothing about intelligence or the CIA before Obama appointed him head of it.

Now it looks as if the president is going back to the same formula for defense. Panetta's credentials are irrelevant, it's his willingness to be a hatchet man for Obama that really counts.
Push for Pentagon cuts tops Panetta's agenda
President Barack Obama's choice of expert budget-cutter Leon Panetta to lead the Defense Department is a clear signal that the White House perceives the nation's deficit crisis, not the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as its toughest challenge.
After winning the presidency in November 2008, Obama asked Robert Gates to remain defense secretary as the administration struggled to bring clarity to the fog of two wars. In tapping Panetta to replace Gates, Obama is turning to a Washington insider and veteran of budget fights as the administration wrestles with reining in an estimated $1.6 trillion deficit.
A military budget that has doubled since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks faces certain cuts amid the clamor from fiscal-minded lawmakers, emboldened tea partyers and an electorate insistent on Washington changing its spending habits. The prospect of the United States drawing down the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan pumps up the volume in the call for cuts.

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