Robert Gates intends to step down as Secretary of Defense sometime within 2011, the Secretary said during a recently published interview with Foreign Policy Magazine.
“It seems like somewhere there in 2011 is a logical opportunity to hand off,” Gates said. “I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012.”
Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary in 2006 during the Bush administration. Citing the need to maintain continuity in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama re-appointed Gates.