Three retired senior military commanderswith 12 stars between themrecently came before the Senate Armed Services Committee to give their assessment of the defense and security challenges facing our country. With their uniforms put away, they were free to speak their minds. And all three lamented the confused, directionless wandering that constitutes the current national security strategy of the Obama administration.
The three were especially disturbed by the conduct of military operations that have no clear objectives nor the defined means of achieving them. Gen. James Mattis, a former commander of the U.S. Central Command, for example, called for us to “come out of our reactive crouch and take a firm strategic stance in defense of our values.”
Gen. Jack Keane, former vice chief of staff of the Army, for his part referred in particular to our inadequate and disjointed efforts against ISIS saying, “We are reduced to a very piecemeal effort.” He noted that our airstrikes against ISIS targets were supporting “unproven” local ground forces, which would “certainly guarantee that we will be incrementally engaged with one radical group after another with no end in sight.”
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