Will Trump Really Purge Obama's Generals? By Josh Rogin, Washington Post
Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump promised to quickly get rid of the top level of senior military officers serving in uniform. But if Trump actually follows through on his plan to purge President Obama’s generals as his first order of business, he could provoke a crisis in civil-military relations at the very beginning of his presidency.
Last year, Trump claimed to more know than the generals on the ground about how to fight the Islamic State. In September, during a Commander in Chief Forum, he said the generals during the Obama administration had been “reduced to rubble” and that if he were elected, he would convene his top generals within 30 days of taking office to provide him with a new plan, but “they’ll probably be different generals.”
Traditionally, presidents have felt free to appoint three- and four-star generals they are comfortable with, but they wait until those officers’ terms in their posts expire. Also, presidents don’t typically interfere in the selection of generals at the lower, one- and two-star levels. What Trump is proposing, an immediate and thorough housecleaning, could provoke pushback from the military and accusations of political interference from the public.
“It would cost a lot to get rid of them. Is this a fight that they really want?” said Tom Donnelly, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “What would be the reward? Who do they think they would put in? The story will be that he wants to politicize the officer core.”
Those advising Trump on military matters contend that the current crop of uniformed military leaders need to go because they have refused to push back against an Obama White House that has pursued a military strategy against the Islamic State that is too slow, too restrictive and too focused on what Trump allies see as political considerations, such as the rights of detainees and the drive to minimize civilian casualties.
Trump has said he would bring back harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, kill the families of terrorists as a deterrent and “bomb the hell out of” areas where terrorists are located, regardless of the collateral damage. As president, Trump may want generals who agree with all of those things in advance…
Comments
Alarming. Disintegration of the American chain of command.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-and-int…
WHY are we even debating this article..it is a given he will throw them all out as that is what he stated over and over during the campaign and in the debates..SO is he going to now work with them when he had publicly belittled and ridiculed them...come on people...what you see and hear Trump say is what you are going to get....end of story.
He publicly stated he knows at more about fighting IS than the Generals and this coming from a "four time draft dodger" than no one wanted to call outright a "draft dodger" when other Americans answered their draft notices and where killed....BTW....since he has no one what has served in his entire immediate family nor has he himself served....what he shows for a lack of respect to those military officers he called out is simply telling as to his true character......
Generals serve at the will of the NCA..end of story and if they are fired they are fired...that is the risk they take in their careers...
CORE statement in this article that needs to be paid massively attention to....
“It would cost a lot to get rid of them. Is this a fight that they really want?” said Tom Donnelly, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “What would be the reward? Who do they think they would put in? The story will be that he wants to politicize the officer core.”
If one is on a mission to basically change the direction of the US...and especially if one is an authoritarian leader...one thing he must do is to politicize the officer corps top down first....
SECOND CORE statement in this article is....
Those advising Trump on military matters contend that the current crop of uniformed military leaders need to go because they have refused to push back against an Obama White House that has pursued a military strategy against the Islamic State that is too slow, too restrictive and too focused on what Trump allies see as political considerations, such as the rights of detainees and the drive to minimize civilian casualties.
THIS is a major indicator of just how little this President fully understands the over 200 years of separation between the military and civilian leadership and that the military answers to civilian leadership...and respects if necessary decisions by the NCA that they do not agree with....
PLUS after 15 long years of WAR and it has been a WAR with AQ and IS and still no end in sight...MAYBE US Generals have become a tad reluctant to continue wack-a-moling ......and there is actually no military solution in sight against IS and AQ...
BUT THIS is exactly WHERE Trump is headed.....
Trump has said he would bring back harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, kill the families of terrorists as a deterrent and “bomb the hell out of” areas where terrorists are located, regardless of the collateral damage. As president, Trump may want generals who agree with all of those things in advance…
Trump selectees for his positions are being used to create a solid echo chamber that Trump wants..nothing more and nothing less and that is massively......dangerous....... as that is exactly WHAT Putin also currently has and these echo chambers create automatically "an altered state of reality" completely detached from truth and the real reality in front of both Putin and Trump.....