Robert Gates is sworn in replacing booted/retiring Donald Rumsfeld:

WASHINGTON - "All of us want to find a way to bring America's sons and daughters home again," Gates told a few hundred people in a Pentagon auditorium, including Bush, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gates' wife and mother. Rumsfeld, who handed off his authority earlier Monday in a private event, did not attend the ceremony.


"As the president has made clear," Gates said, "we simply cannot afford to fail in the Middle East. Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for decades to come."

Great first impression. Not much different from Rummy.

At the Pentagon ceremony, Bush said he is confident Gates, 63, will bring a fresh perspective to the Iraq problem.


"He knows the stakes in the war on terror," Bush said. "He recognizes this is a long struggle against an enemy unlike any our nation has fought before. He understands that defeating the terrorists and the radicals and the extremists in Iraq and the Middle East is essential to leading toward peace."

This fresh perspective seems to include victory--as opposed to withdrawl--which is precisely the old perspective.

Meet the new boss...same as the old boss.

Labels: Department of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, The Pentagon

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