Gates Will Likely Resign

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who has served as the Pentagon’s civilian chief since President George W. Bush appointed him in 2006, has announced his intention to leave his post sometime early next year. “I think it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012,” Gates said in an interview published in Aug. 16 issues of Foreign Policy magazine. “This is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of an election year.” By the onset of the New Year, Gates said, an administration review of the new Afghan strategy would be complete as well, Voice of America reported. The Foreign Policy article did note, however, that Gates expressed similar intention to resign at the end of the Bush administration – only to be persuaded by Obama to stay on. If Obama wants him to stay on the job, “Robert Gates has always been the type to say, ‘Yes,’” the article stated.