Another key moment from Obama's national security presser today: In case there were any lingering doubts about how his decision to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates might impact his promise to withdraw from Iraq, Obama made it clear: Gates will be ordered to pull out.

Obama said...

As I said throughout the campaign, I will be giving Secretary Gates and our military a new mission as soon as I take office: responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control. We will also ensure that we have the strategy -- and resources -- to succeed against al Qaeda and the Taliban. As Bob said not too long ago, Afghanistan is where the war on terror began, and it is where it must end.

Obviously, the devil will be in the details over what sort of timing Gates sees as necessary for "responsibly" ending the war. And there will be plenty of room for disagreement ahead on that and other fronts. But the fact that Obama went out of his way to reiterate his commitment to ending the war at his first presser with Gates seems noteworthy and encouraging.

Late Update: Obama elaborated a bit on his pull-out plans in the Q and A with reporters that followed. Asked if he remained committed to a 16-month withdrawal timetable, he said that he believed it was "the right time-frame" but added that he would listen to the commanders' views when crafting the details of his pull-out plan.

Obama said that we are on a "glide path" towards troop reductions and said he'd be meeting with Secretary Gates, the Joint Chiefs and the commanders on the ground in the days ahead "to make a determination as to how we proceed in that withdrawal process."

But Obama did take care to point out that he was reserving the option of keeping a "residual force" in place, just as he did during the campaign. In essence, he's (understandably) preserving the wiggle room on timing and other questions that he sought to during the campaign.