Barack Obama to Retain Most of President Bush’s War Team

 This has got to be disheartening to the anti-war activists that voted for Barack Obama based on one of his positions on the Iraq War, the immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

 President-elect Obama first decided to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates on board and if that wasn’t enough to drive the anti-war crowd nuts he has authorized Robert Gates to extend most of President Bush’s war team an invitation to serve under Obama.

 The president-elect was never going to withdraw troops immediately or within thirteen months or within any of the other timetables he threw out there. Over the course of the campaign his position morphed into basically the same position as President Bush’s, that he would listen to the commanders on the ground. To do otherwise would have been irresponsible and foolhardy. The far left was oblivious to Obama’s gradual change because of their hatred towards President Bush.

Now his transition to President Bush’s side on the Iraq War issue seems to be completed. The only ones who didn’t see this coming were the ones who voted first and foremost on the issue of ending the war.

 Barack Obama’s gradual change on this issue was brilliantly played. As the Iraq War news got better and better and the war fell from the hourly news cycle Barack Obama was afforded the opportunity to gradually change his position. The less that the public heard about the war and the further it slipped from their minds the easier it was for Obama to slide over to George Bush’s side. And he pulled it off masterfully, so masterfully in fact that the anti-war crowd probably hasn’t even heard that Obama kept Robert Gates and most of Bush’s war team. And that is just the way he likes it.