Foreign Policy
Why
Trump’s generals-heavy national security team is a danger to national security.
- By Gordon Adams
- December 2, 2016
In
the 1990s, during Bill Clinton’s second term, Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright (A), National Security Advisor Sandy Berger (B), and Secretary of
Defense William Cohen (C) would meet weekly for what was called the “ABC
lunch.” When the rest of us minions gathered in the White House Situation Room
for one crisis or problem or another, we always had the sense that the agenda
was kind of fixed, with the statements of the principals a choreographed ballet
reflecting agreements already reached at that lunch table.
If
current trends from President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet appointees continue,
the new lunch crowd may all be senior generals in the U.S. military. With
National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn now joined by Secretary of
Defense Gen. James Mattis, and both Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. John Kelly being considered as a possible secretary of
state, three of the five institutions most centrally involved in U.S. national
security policy could be headed by former senior military officers. That would
be an unprecedented event in American history, a serious challenge to the
tradition of civilian control over the military, and a danger to U.S. national
security. http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/12/02/if-all-you-have-is-a-mattis-everything-looks-like-a-nail-civil-military-balance-of-power-trump/
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