10 reasons to be worried as Tom Donilon, Afghan war sceptic & desk-bound foe of US military,

Four weeks before the mid-terms and Barack Obama fires General Jim Jones as National Security Adviser and appoints Tom Donilon in his place. So what on earth is going on and what does this mean?

Here are 10 reasons to be worried:

1. Donilon has a poor relationship with Bob Gates, the Pentagon chief. Gates has issued a statement lauding his “very productive and very good working relationship” with Donilon. But Bob Woodward reported that Gates once told Jones that Donilon would be a “disaster” as National Security Adviser. Gates, Washington’s Mr Steady, is hardly likely to have used that word lightly. This appointment could hasten the departure of Gates, already due in 2011.

2. Donilon does not travel. Woodward tells us that up to around a year ago Donilon “had never gone to Afghanistan or Iraq, or really left the office for a serious field trip”. As a result, Jones felt, Donilon had “no direct understanding of these places”. He’s essentially a political operative. Great.

3. Donilon has “no credibility” with the US military. Again according to Woodward, Donilon has fractious relations with the US military, with Pentagon officials complaining of “condescension” and Jones telling him: “You have no credibility with the military.”

4. Donilon was opposed to the Afghan surge. Donilon’s appointment is another sign that Obama’s heart is not in his own Afghan war strategy and he wants out quickly after July 2011.

As Jacob Heilbrunn argues it’s a sign that Obama is “positioning himself to leave Afghanistan”.

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Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk …

via 10 reasons to be worried as Tom Donilon, Afghan war sceptic & desk-bound foe of US military,.

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