Dear Editor, ‘ ‘ ‘ While reading Giles Howard’s column, ‘Obama fails Democratic Party,’ I… Dear Editor, ‘ ‘ ‘ While reading Giles Howard’s column, ‘Obama fails Democratic Party,’ I could not help but think that the conclusions Howard draws from recent events were hastily made. He claims that ‘Barack Obama has essentially capitulated to Republican propaganda’ because of his appointment of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense. While I am firmly rooted in my criticism of the Bush administration with its preemptive wars and torture, I believe Howard misses an important part of U.S. governance. Gates will be working for Obama, not the other way around. ‘ ‘ ‘ Howard continues, stating that ‘[nominating] antiwar Democrats to key cabinet positions such as Defense and State would have served as a clear rebuttal to the Republican machine and its allies in the Pentagon who got us where we are today.’ While I hope that the Obama administration will pursue diplomacy and avoid pointless and disastrous wars, I am glad that he appointed a military person to head the Defense department. Robert Gates was complicit with the Bush administration in our recent foreign policy blunders, but he remains an expert on military matters. And that is precisely the person you want running the Department of Defense. ‘ ‘ ‘ Making the claim that Obama is ‘recreating the Clinton administration with a tinge of Bush conservatism,’ before he has even administered anything, seems to me to be unfair and ultimately speculative. Jim Hartle, School of Arts ‘amp; Sciences