Former military leaders say the Obama administration has created a National Security Council that is far too involved in the military’s operational details.
Retired Adm. William Fallon, a former commander of U.S. Central Command, said the power of the defense secretary and the joint staff should be “beefed up” to counteract the increasing influence of the White House’s National Security Council. A build up of the Pentagon’s power, he said, would allow defense officials to actually voice an opinion or strategy.
“The NSC staff has grown by leaps and bounds,” Fallon said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They’ve gotten into, in my opinion, far too much detail and meddling, frankly.”
“The NSC should not be activists. They should have limited, if any, role in execution, but there has been over the years a significant elevation,” added retired Gen. Norton Schwartz, former Air Force chief of staff.
Other former officials have levied the same criticism, including former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who told Foreign Policy last year that his meetings with the National Security Council were inefficient and often leaked into the press.
The important role of the National Security Council to deal with the facilitation and coordination of military efforts gets diminished when they play too much of an operational role, the former officials said.
Schwartz blamed part of this on technological advances that have allowed leaders of the war effort to speak directly to White House staff via videoconference.
Jamie Gorelick, a former general counsel of the Defense Department, said that the trend has been a problem since she served in the administration of former president Bill Clinton, and says the consolidation of power at the White House is not just a defense issue. Instead, she said it affects all cabinet secretaries, as presidents seem to prefer staying in closer contact with people on decisions that could lead to political fallout.
“It’s across the board and, as somebody who served in three different agencies and had a lot of respect for how the work of government gets done, I think that’s not a helpful trend. I don’t think that either policy making or execution is benefited from significant overweight to the central power,” she said.
