Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Most top military quitting Obama


Here's one place with plenty of job openings: the "E" Ring of the Pentagon.

In the next several months, the secretary of defense and four of the six uniformed members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are expected to retire.

This kind of mass exodus of military brass is "virtually unheard of," said John Ullyot, a Republican strategist and former spokesman for the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It's very rare to have so many service chiefs up" all at once, he said.

"Even in peacetime this would be a lot of turnover, a lot of change for the biggest part of the discretionary budget. But in wartime it's even more complicated and needs to be done with great care to ensure that there's a smooth transition," Ullyot said.

The changes in command come as Obama faces major decision points in the Afghanistan war and prepares to joust with a new, more adversarial Congress over defense spending and his intention to lift the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/job-openings-at-pentagon-give-president-obama-chance-to-military/19707434