Gen. Dempsey chosen to head Joint Chiefs of Staff

Pres­i­dent Barack Obama intro­duces his choice for the next Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from left, Army Gen. Mar­tin Dempsey, the next vice chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. James Win­nefeld and Gen. Ray Odierno to be Army Chief of Staff dur­ing a Rose Gar­den announce­ment at the White House in Wash­ing­ton Mon­day. (Asso­ci­ated Press | Charles Dharapak)

DARLENE SUPERVILLE

ROBERT BURNS

Asso­ci­ated Press

WASHINGTON — Pres­i­dent Barack Obama moved Mon­day to seal an over­haul of his national secu­rity team, select­ing Army Gen. Mar­tin Dempsey as the next Joint Chiefs of Staff chair­man amid pro­tracted bat­tle in Afghanistan, U.S. involve­ment in the NATO-led effort against Libya’s Moam­mar Gad­hafi and a wind­ing down of the war in Iraq.

Obama announced a new lineup of his top mil­i­tary lead­er­ship group in the Rose Gar­den of the White House just before ven­tur­ing across the Potomac to pay trib­ute to the nation’s war dead at Arling­ton National Ceme­tery. The Memo­r­ial Day announce­ments had been expected, although there was no imme­di­ate indi­ca­tion what the mil­i­tary lead­er­ship moves might imply for pos­si­ble changes in mil­i­tary strategy.

Already, the pres­i­dent had turned, in late April, to CIA Direc­tor Leon Panetta to suc­ceed Robert Gates as sec­re­tary of defense and chose to move Army Gen. David Petraeus from his com­mand of the Afghanistan war effort to the United States to replace Panetta at the CIA.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright had long been rumored to be Obama’s favorite, and the pres­i­dent sin­gled him out for praise at the announce­ment. But he turned instead to Dempsey, an accom­plished vet­eran of the Iraq war, to suc­ceed Adm. Mike Mullen as his top mil­i­tary adviser, call­ing Dempsey “one of our nation’s most respected and combat-tested generals.”

The pres­i­dent also announced he has cho­sen Navy Adm. James Win­nefeld to suc­ceed Cartwright as vice chair­man of the Joint Chiefs and Army Gen. Ray Odierno as his can­di­date to replace Dempsey as Army chief of staff.

The nom­i­nees have to be approved by the Sen­ate, and Obama voiced hope that could hap­pen in a timely fashion.

At the White House, Obama called America’s ser­vice­men and women “the best our nation has to offer, and they deserve noth­ing but the best in return, and that includes leaders.”

Later on, Obama placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at the ven­er­a­ble Arling­ton bur­ial grounds. And in a speech at the Arling­ton amphithe­ater in front of a flag-draped wall, the pres­i­dent, who had met ear­lier in the day with fam­i­lies of troops killed in war, said: “To those of you mourn the loss of a loved one today, my heart goes out to you.”

“We remem­ber that the bless­ings that we enjoy as Amer­i­cans came at a dear cost,” he said. “Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can­not ever fully repay. But we can honor their sac­ri­fice, and we must.” After his remarks, Obama and his wife, Michelle, vis­ited a sec­tion of the ceme­tery that is the final rest­ing place for many vet­er­ans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pre­ced­ing Obama at the amphithe­ater, Gates said the coun­try “must never for­get” its men and women in the military.

“As I come to the end of my time in this post,” Gates said, ” … I will keep these brave patri­ots and their fam­i­lies in my heart and in my prayers.”

Dempsey, who began a four-year term as Army chief of staff on April 11, will have to be con­firmed by the Sen­ate, as will Win­nefeld and Odierno.

Gates said that Dempsey, Win­nefeld and Odierno are excel­lent choices.

“They pos­sess the right mix of intel­lec­tual heft, moral courage and strate­gic vision to pro­vide sound and can­did advice to the pres­i­dent and his national secu­rity team,” Gates said. “Above all, they are proven lead­ers of men and women in com­bat oper­a­tions over the past decade and are uniquely qual­i­fied to guide and shape our mil­i­tary insti­tu­tions through the chal­leng­ing times ahead.

Mullen said the trio will give “not only their best mil­i­tary advice, but also the great ben­e­fit of their decades of mil­i­tary expe­ri­ence and their com­mand in com­bat oper­a­tions.” He called Odierno a “combat-proven offi­cer who made a real dif­fer­ence in Iraq.”

Appear­ing in a nation­ally broad­cast inter­view Mon­day morn­ing, Mullen was asked whether a change of guard at the Joint Chiefs meant a change of strat­egy in Afghanistan.

“We obvi­ously have added these forces … and we’ve really seen progress on the secu­rity side,” he replied. “We will sus­tain losses as we have in the last few days. … That said, I am con­fi­dent that by the end of the year, we’ll be in a much, much bet­ter position.”

He said he hopes the pub­lic under­stands “the depth of sac­ri­fice” made by ser­vice­men and women.

Mullen appeared on ABC’s “Good Morn­ing Amer­ica,” CBS’s “The Early Show” and NBC’s “Today” show.

Posted by AP News on May 30 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.