Military Leaders to Be Among Obama’s First Priorities

[pkpatriotic]

Military Leaders to Be Among Obama’s First Priorities
By BRIAN KNOWLTON
Published: January 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — On his first full day in office, Mr. Obama will order American military leaders to plan the speedy withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq and will direct his economic advisers to do everything possible to avert a prolonged downturn and double-digit unemployment, his top aides said Sunday.

Within the first week, he might also issue executive orders calling for the closure of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba even though the process might take time, Robert Gibbs, the incoming press secretary, told “Fox News Sunday.”

“We’ve talked about banning torture and closing Guantanamo, the process by which that will happen,” Mr. Gibbs said. In addition, Mr. Obama would issue executive orders tightening ethics and transparency rules affecting current and outgoing government workers.

“I think those are probably the big things that could happen as early as the first week,” Mr. Gibbs said.

Mr. Obama, in a taped interview with CNN, said that he said he would do his best to ensure that taxpayer moneys are spent transparently and with sufficient oversight that “the American people know exactly how the money’s being used.”

David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, said that the new president would move quickly to address violence and instability in the Middle East. He told ABC’s "This Week" that of the recent cease-fire between Israel and militants in Gaza, “Let me say that all of us are hopeful that a cessation of violence will hold.”

He added: “I think that the events around the world demand that he act quickly, and I think you’ll see him act quickly.”

There were signs that the Democratic-controlled Congress is not in full agreement with Mr. Obama on every issue. Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, suggested Sunday that some lawmakers might not be as ready to leave the past behind as Mr. Obama has said he hopes to do. Asked about looking into potential criminal violations under the Bush administration on such issues as detainee treatment, Ms. Pelosi told Fox she thought it necessary at least to examine “what is a violation, and do we even have a right to ignore it.”

She also said she would favor repealing some Bush tax cuts before they expire in 2010 rather than waiting to do so, as Mr. Obama has indicated he is inclined to do.

Regarding the inauguration itself, several Obama advisers emphasized Sunday that the speech on Tuesday would revolve around a call for greater responsibility and accountability — not only in the government but also by the country’s financial leaders.

In the interview with CNN’s John King, Mr. Obama spoke in personal terms about the deep significance of his rise, as a black man, to occupy a White House that was built partly with slave labor.

He said it was “something that hopefully our children take for granted, but our grandparents, I think, are still stunned by it, and it’s a remarkable moment.”

While practicing a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. for his convention speech in Denver, Mr. Obama said, “I started choking up.” But in his Inaugural Address on Tuesday, he said, “I’m going to try to keep it together.”

He also recounted a story about his recent visit to the Lincoln Memorial, when his daughter Sasha looked at the engraved version of Lincoln’s second inaugural speech and said, “That’s a long speech.”

When Mr. Obama replied that Lincoln’s was among the shorter ones and his might be longer, daughter Malia instructed him seriously: “First African-American president — better be good!”

After noting that 2009 would be “a tough year,” Mr. Obama added: “The good news is that we’re getting a consensus around what needs to be done — we’ve got to have a bold, aggressive investment and recovery package.” On Sunday morning after visiting Arlington National Cemetery with Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, went to a local church as the family continued the search for a regular place of worship.

At the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, more than 250 people — most of them African-American churchgoers but also gawkers and members of the media — erupted in screams when the presidential motorcade turned onto the street where the 169-year-old church stands.

Later in the day, Mr. Obama attended an outdoor concert at the Lincoln Memorial, where such stars like Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keyes and Stevie Wonder were scheduled to perform.

But Mr. Obama’s aides sought to make clear on Sunday that he would waste little time getting to work this week, possibly only hours after he leaves the last official inaugural ball around 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Mr. Obama had said during his campaign that “my first day in office, I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in, and I will give them a new mission, and that is to end this war responsibly and deliberately but decisively."

Asked on Fox whether Mr. Obama would still do so, Mr. Gibbs replied, “He will.”

Mr. Gibbs also said that Mr. Obama would address the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp — though the complexities of dealing with about 250 detainees there will take some time — and also order tightening of government rules on ethics and transparency.

The themes of the inaugural speech, Mr. Gibbs said, would be familiar to those who have watched Mr. Obama, but would be “heavily infused with this notion of responsibility, getting our country back on track.”

Asked whether this would include a call for sacrifice by an already stressed populace, Mr. Gibbs said, “Obviously, the American people are all going to have to give some.” But he said those who had suffered the most in recent years should “get the help that they need.”

While reaffirming that Mr. Obama would call on the Joint Chiefs for a 16-month withdrawal plan from Iraq, Mr. Gibbs appeared to leave a bit of wiggle room. “The president-elect and the vice president-elect are very interested in hearing from the military commanders,” he said. Of the staggering economic challenge facing the new president, Mr. Gibbs declined to say how the incoming administration might change the $700 billion bailout plan passed last year but did say that “we have to get a financial stabilization package that works far differently.”

As Mr. Obama has done, Mr. Gibbs warned Americans not to expect a quick rebound. “This economy is likely to get worse before it gets better,” he said. “It’s certainly going to get far worse unless and until we act immediately.”

Separately, Mr. Axelrod sought to defend the incoming administration from charges that its $825 billion economic stimulus plan included frivolous or irrelevant spending that would do little to create or preserve jobs.

“We’re not just spending money to create jobs,” he said on ABC, “we’re investing money to strengthen this economy,” with projects like the modernization of classrooms, the computerization of health-care records. “Only the government can marshal the resources to really blast us out of the morass we’re in right now.”

Lawrence H. Summers, Mr. Obama’s choice to head the National Economic Council, predicted on CBS that the stimulus program would pass within a month.

Priya Singh contributed reporting

 

[Beskar]

At least he's going to shut down Guantanamo bay. Hopefully, they'll also release the prisoners and not shift them to another abu gharib type prison somewhere in the Nevada desert.

As far as ending the war "Decisively" is concerned, they need to haul their as$ out of Iraq AND Afghanistan. Sending more troops in Afghanistan has disaster written all over it.