Peter1469
04-09-2016, 05:50 AM
Obama’s former Defense Secretaries: (http://freebeacon.com/national-security/obamas-pentagon-chiefs-military-suffered-overbearing-white-house/) military suffered from overbearing, inexperienced White House.
Obama's three formers Sec Defs are talking, and they don't have good things to say about the Administration.
The U.S. military has been hindered by an overbearing and inexperienced White House under President Barack Obama, according to each of his three former defense secretaries, causing the Pentagon to struggle to carry out operations and make decisions.
“It was the operational micromanagement that drove me nuts, of White House and [National Security Council] staffers calling senior commanders out in the field and asking them questions, of second-guessing commanders,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Bret Baier in a new Fox News special called “Rising Threats, Shrinking Military.”
Baier posted clips from the program (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/watch-3-former-defense-secretaries-slam-white-house-micromanagement/article/2587908) Wednesday that did not make it to the final cut.
Gates was a holdover from the George W. Bush administration, and Obama kept him on as Pentagon chief. He described how, when he served in the White House, he would have “had [his] head handed to [him], probably personally by the president,” if he tried to call a field commander while circumventing senior Pentagon officials.
“I told the combatant commanders and field commanders … if you get a call from some White House or National Security Council staffer, you tell them to call me instead, and then tell them, oh, by the way, go to hell,” Gates said, smiling. “And that’s directly from the secretary of defense.”
Obama's three formers Sec Defs are talking, and they don't have good things to say about the Administration.
The U.S. military has been hindered by an overbearing and inexperienced White House under President Barack Obama, according to each of his three former defense secretaries, causing the Pentagon to struggle to carry out operations and make decisions.
“It was the operational micromanagement that drove me nuts, of White House and [National Security Council] staffers calling senior commanders out in the field and asking them questions, of second-guessing commanders,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Bret Baier in a new Fox News special called “Rising Threats, Shrinking Military.”
Baier posted clips from the program (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/watch-3-former-defense-secretaries-slam-white-house-micromanagement/article/2587908) Wednesday that did not make it to the final cut.
Gates was a holdover from the George W. Bush administration, and Obama kept him on as Pentagon chief. He described how, when he served in the White House, he would have “had [his] head handed to [him], probably personally by the president,” if he tried to call a field commander while circumventing senior Pentagon officials.
“I told the combatant commanders and field commanders … if you get a call from some White House or National Security Council staffer, you tell them to call me instead, and then tell them, oh, by the way, go to hell,” Gates said, smiling. “And that’s directly from the secretary of defense.”