Syria Crisis Underlines Pentagon’s Move to the Back Seat by Thom Shanker, New York Times.
As President Obama considers an attack on Syria, any strike would be carried out by a Defense Department and military transformed by the commander in chief.
The civilian policy makers and generals who led Mr. Obama toward a troop escalation in Afghanistan during his first year in office — a decision that left him deeply distrustful of senior military leaders — have been replaced by a handpicked leadership that includes Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff…