Small Wars Journal

Trump’s New National Security Adviser is Known as a Soldier Who Can Say ‘No, Sir’

Tue, 02/21/2017 - 6:57pm

Trump’s New National Security Adviser is Known as a Soldier Who Can Say ‘No, Sir’ by Greg Jaffe and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post

More than any other officer of his generation, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster’s military career has been defined by a willingness to dissent — often forcefully.

In “Dereliction of Duty,” the book he wrote in the 1990s, McMaster blasted the nation’s top generals for their unwillingness to tell a domineering president that his war strategy in Vietnam could not work.

More than a decade later as the commander of a 5,000-soldier regiment in Iraq, McMaster essentially ignored the U.S. military’s prevailing plan for stabilizing the country, which he concluded was failing badly.

In his many successes and his most notable failure — leading an anti-corruption task force in Afghanistan — McMaster has displayed the same traits: a fierce intellect, dogged determination and a penchant for conflict that has produced loyal supporters and, in some cases, determined foes.

McMaster comes to the job leading the White House’s National Security Council with some significant disadvantages relative to his predecessors. The most effective national security advisers have close personal relationships with the president. It’s not clear whether McMaster had even met Trump before interviewing for the job…

Read on.