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Robert Gates should stay at Pentagon

Just days after unveiling details of his plan to slice $100 billion from the defense budget over the next five years, Defense Secretary Robert Gates publicly mused that 2011 might be the right time for him to step down.

That comment, in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, seemed to surprise even Gates’ aides, with senior spokesman Geoff Morrell hurriedly insisting that “this is not Bob Gates announcing his retirement.”

Let’s hope not. It may seem selfish to ask a man who has already served his country for decades — as an Air Force officer, CIA officer, director of Central Intelligence, and deputy national security adviser before becoming defense secretary — to continue to serve.

But this is a particularly critical time for the military and for U.S. national security, with many complex, far-reaching issues in play that may well falter without Gates’ firm hand.

His assault on $100 billion in Pentagon redundancies and inefficiencies is just one — and one that pales next to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both at crossroads that may well mark their long-term success or failure.

Gates also continues to be a bulwark in the budget wars, waging a bare-knuckle fight against wasting billions on defense programs that qualify as blatant congressional pork.

When Gates took over the Pentagon in late 2006, he came to a fractious department roiling from the blustery, rancorous reign of Donald Rumsfeld.

Since then, Gates quietly has operated on common sense, fairness and principle, qualities too often drowned out in the shouting that passes as politics in Washington.

the country would be well served if Gates would stay on station long enough to see his initiatives through.