Trump’s Generals Are Too Valuable to Be Dismissed

The real challenge for the generals has been how to warn enemies and reassure friends that past global provocations against U.S. interests will now be deterred — but without a major war.

Victor Davis Hanson

To fire any one of the three would be a disaster for the White House.

. . . "Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, Trump’s national-security adviser, is occasionally rumored to be a robotic PowerPoint wonk and hawkish interventionist who soon might be terminated. 

"Secretary of Defense General James Mattis is purportedly too much the centrist Democrat, and embarrassed by Trump’s antics and therefore might be leaving. 

"Of course, few cabinet or White House appointees ever serve throughout an entire administration. Burnout is natural. Lucrative private-sector job offers multiply monthly. Normal people do not enjoy living inside the Beltway. 

" Barack Obama had four defense secretaries, three national-security advisers, and five chiefs of staff. That is about par for a presidential tenure covering eight years. 

"But the problem with all these rumors of departing generals is not just that they are likely false and shopworn. They also make no sense because the three generals have been radically successful. In just a year, they have markedly enhanced U.S. national security as well as the image of the Trump administration itself. 

"The media, which are mostly anti-Trump, have always been schizophrenic in the coverage of the three generals. Some media outlets initially echoed old worries about too many Pentagon tentacles or the militarization of the executive branch. They forgot that generals, both active and retired, have long held administration jobs. General Colin Powell, for instance, served four different presidents, starting with his tenure as national-security adviser under Ronald Reagan. " . . .

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