It is being reported that Robert Gates, currently Secretary of Defense in the Bush administration, will retain his post for a transition period of about one-year. It is expected that a formal announcement will made next week by President-elect Barack Obama when he discloses his choices for his administration’s national security team.

Keeping Gates at Defense will provide Obama with a defense secretary who has garnered support from both sides of the aisle in Congress. Gates also has considerable experience with foreign leaders throughout the world and he is highly respected by the top military brass. Under a President Obama, Secretary Gates will have to transition from serving the President who initiated the Iraq war to serving under Barack Obama, who opposed the war from the beginning and has pledged to end it and bring the American troops home.

Barack Obama has apparently decided to set aside concerns that he would upset anti-war supporters after conducting an election campaign in which he made his consistent opposition to the Iraq war one of his key issues.