the rogue secretary of defense

I’ve been studying America’s secretaries of defense for a long time. I wrote a book comparing the first 21 in 2006, just before one of the best ever, Robert Gates, began his service. Once former secretaries started writing memoirs, I began collecting them. But save your money when it comes to Christopher Miller’s Soldier Secretary.

That’s uncharitable. Let me put it differently. Don’t buy it unless you want to read –

-- the geriatric congressional leadership ”cowering like frightened children” on January 6 [xi]

-- the Iraq war conducted “all for a god-damned lie” [108]

-- the Army War College’s devotion to  the “dogmas of the ruling regime” [138]

-- how civilian control in the Pentagon made him “nauseous” [141]

--his first NSC boss, John Bolton, was a “classic ‘chicken hawk’” [158]

-- he concluded we need only “800 military personnel” in Afghanistan [159]

-- Chairmen MIlley in 2021 was “either lying or grossly incompetent” about Afghanistan [160]

-- he was an internationalist until he “was mugged by neoconservatives” [190]

-- Milley was “prone to histrionics” [218]

-- we should “cut  military spending in half,”[230] “demolish and rebuild the intelligence community” (the vast majority of whose products are “worthless and a colossal waste of time and resources”)[241], and “fire the generals” [248]

 

What he doesn’t say is how he maneuvered to be named Acting Secretary of Defense. He went to work on the NSC staff in March 2018, later had a political job at DOD, and was nominated by President Trump to head the National Counter Terrorism Center in March, 2020. The Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing on his nomination on July 22, and the Senate confirmed him with a voice vote and no debate on August 6. That confirmation made him legally available to be named Acting Secretary of Defense, and he admits that he “had been on standby throughout the later summer and early fall.” [183]

 

President Trump waited until after the election, then fired Secretary Mark Esper on November 9 and announced Miller’s appointment. Miller had a long Army career, but slim accomplishments compared to the other men who have headed the Pentagon. What counted most was that he had the confidence of the president.

 

The most curious omission was any discussion of the November 11, 2020 meeting when the senior leadership was presented with memorandum signed by President Trump ordering the withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel from Somalia by December 31 and from Afghanistan by January 15. The document had been prepared by the team sent to the Pentagon with Miller but without the usual staffing by the NSC. General Milley protested the unorthodox process and Trump was persuaded to withdraw it. Miller brags that he was later able to fly to Africa and get the Somalia withdrawal accomplished before Trump left office.

 

I believe a soldier can become disillusioned with a war in which he fought bravely. I can appreciate that an official in the Pentagon and intelligence community can witness enough examples of unwise spending that he favors big cuts. I understand that Donald Trump’s impulsive and ignorant policymaking could appeal to someone with a shattered world view. But it’s scary to realize that such a  person could have been given such extraordinary power by a president actively trying to overturn a democratic election.