In 1993, Panetta resigned from Congress to direct the Clinton administration’s Office of Management and Budget. He worked as Clinton’s chief of staff for three years before leaving government in 1997 to found a public policy institute in his home town of Monterey, Calif. He still owns a walnut farm near there that his immigrant parents started after World War II.
In 2006, he served on the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel of foreign-policy graybeards that called for a new war strategy and the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by 2008. The recommendations were largely ignored by the younger Bush, who instead sent more than 20,000 additional troops to that country.
Like Gates, in many ways
In some ways, Panetta would bring to the Pentagon a reputation similar to that of the man he would be replacing. Both are considered pragmatic, non-ideological problem solvers who know their way around the White House.
Like Panetta, Gates is a former CIA director. He also served on the Iraq Study Group, until he was tapped by George W. Bush in late 2006 to run the Defense Department. Gates has kept the job under Obama, but he made clear months ago that he intended to retire this year. White House officials said he would step down June 30.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also likened Panetta to Gates. “They’re both thoughtful, serious individuals who are committed to public service and who ask the right questions,” Reed said in a telephone interview.
Reed said the Senate would confirm Panetta quickly, despite his limited familiarity with military programs. “The one thing that he has, based on his experience and history, is good judgment,” the senator said. “He doesn’t have to be a master military technologist.”
Panetta is well-versed in one important high-tech military program: the use of armed drones. The CIA has become increasingly reliant on Predator and Reaper drones to hunt down terrorism suspects in Pakistan. The Pentagon has embraced the technology to an even greater degree and is flying armed drones in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and — as recently as November — Yemen.
In his new job, Panetta would have to rapidly familiarize himself with the biggest bureaucracy in the U.S. government. In addition to 1.4 million troops on active duty, the Defense Department employs about 700,000 civilians, as well as armies of private contractors. Its annual budget exceeds $700 billion, including the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“He’s going to drink through a fire hose initially, but that’s just how it is,” said former defense secretary William S. Cohen, who worked with Panetta during the Clinton administration and called him an “excellent” choice to lead the Pentagon. “This is what goes with the territory, but Leon is used to it.”
Staff writers Greg Miller and Joby Warrick contributed to this report.
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