On SECDEF Retirement

This is news for anyone who doesn't really follow defense issues.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he plans to retire next year.

“I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012,” Gates, 67, told Foreign Policy magazine, according to the article that appeared on the magazine’s website Monday.

“I think that by next year I’ll be in a position where — you know, we’re going to know whether the strategy is working in Afghanistan,” Gates said. “We’ll have completed the surge. We’ll have done the assessment in December. And it seems like somewhere there in 2011 is a logical opportunity to hand off.”

Danger Room has the most complete analysis of the topic, but I can tell you that whatever you think is going on - Gates will not be leaving his post until after he appoints the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - which will be in June of 2011 with the swearing in ceremony sometime in September - October.

There is a zero percent chance short of a health reason that Gates will resign before then, and if you are looking for a Gates retirement time line then you need to factor that into your equations.