Robert Gates: Bush's best appointment

* uh-oh. arkin:

"Speaking to The Washington Post Wednesday, Carter administration national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was Gates's boss at the National Security Council in the late 1970s, described the new appointment as "the best ... that President Bush has made in the course of his six years in office."
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Yes, it is true that Gate is another tired ex-Cold Warrior, a former Soviet expert, a Washington Zelig who is clever and cautious and jocular enough to be everyone's first nominee and a member of any commission, but with earlier involvements in Iraq policy, Afghanistan and, ahem, Iran, he has also seen it all.
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But at least Gates fundamentally believes in internationalism and the rule of law, a nice contrast with what's-his-name currently at the Pentagon.

Yes Gates, like the rest of the old Cold War team can be criticized for their many failures over many years. They ultimately are responsible for American policies that precipitated the growth of al-Qaeda.

For all of the talk that September 11 changed "everything" and for all the sweeping changes that supposedly have been made to U.S. national security policy-making in the past five years, the nomination of Bob Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon is a reminder that the same old crowd runs Washington."

* mizgin:

"Robert Gates is a protégé (read: lapdog) of Scowcroft; Scowcroft is a protégé (read: lapdog) of Kissinger, and what Kurd can forget Kissinger?

If the Democrats don't obstruct the Gates nomination, it will be very enlightening, because by Thursday after the elections, Scowcroft (the friendly face of the pashas and Deep State in America) was already in Ankara, and meeting with just about every "business" organization to finalize the thawing of the US-Turkish relationship. Naturally, he was there as the head of the ATC. I posted a little about this yesterday, but here's a roundup of the Scowcroft visit since then...
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Scowcroft and his Turkish counterparts must be really stupid if they think that we are stupid enough to believe this drivel about friendship. There is no such thing as friendship in politics or business.
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The last time that Scowcroft visited Ankara as head of ATC was in December, 2005, at the same time that Muller (FBI) and Goss (CIA) were making their pilgrimages to the regime. All of that was in preparation for Rice's visit in April, at which time she gave the US blessing for Turkish and Iranian attacks against the Kurdish people, and set the stage for Gul's visit to DC in July, when the US-Turkish Strategic Vision document was finalized.

Scowcroft's running off to Ankara immediately after the elections therefore indicates to me that big changes are on the horizon, and if Scowcroft's lapdog, Gates, becomes the Secretary of Defense, expect continued Deep State involvement in US domestic politics."