{"id":16504,"date":"2020-11-12T11:02:35","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T19:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=16504"},"modified":"2020-11-12T11:04:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T19:04:43","slug":"the-crisis-at-the-top-of-the-pentagon-is-just-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2020\/11\/12\/the-crisis-at-the-top-of-the-pentagon-is-just-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"The crisis at the top of the Pentagon is just beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Link to video: https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video\/national\/trump-fires-defense-secretary-esper-via-tweet\/2020\/11\/09\/1e9a4bd5-ac09-4822-a648-95410dd80102_video.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper in a Nov. 9 tweet, marking the fourth Pentagon chief the president has let go during his administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Reuters) <\/a>Opinion by Josh Rogin<\/strong><\/a> Columnist<\/p>\n\n\n\n

November 10, 2020 (WashingtonPost.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s becoming clear that President Trump\u2019s firing<\/a> of Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper by tweet<\/a> Monday was only the first step in an effort to remove the entire top Defense Department leadership team and replace it with officials loyal to the president. As more and more senior Pentagon officials lose their jobs, all eyes are on Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, who has fallen out of favor with many inside the White House.Follow the latest on Election 2020<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, the purge widened dramatically as the White House asked for the resignations of three more top Pentagon officials: Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Anderson<\/a>, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Joseph Kernan and Pentagon Chief of Staff Jen Stewart. All three are being replaced by staffers<\/a> more loyal to Trump\u2019s political agenda. Officials said Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist<\/a> could be the next White House target for dismissal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are major shake-ups. But getting rid of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs would be an earthquake. Milley has no intention to resign, several officials told me, adding that Trump has made no decision yet to call for his resignation. Other senior officials who refused to resign, such as USAID deputy administrator Bonnie Glick<\/a>, have been terminated with no explanation.AD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Esper, Milley has run afoul of a faction of top Trump aides who are purging officials all over the government<\/a>. Milley sided with Esper internally on the issue of Confederate symbols on military bases, which both support removing<\/a>, breaking with Trump. Milley also disagrees with some White House officials who want to precipitously withdraw from Afghanistan and Syria. The New York Times reported in June that Milley had angered Trump by disagreeing with him twice<\/a> to his face, once about using active-duty troops to quash protesters and once about Trump\u2019s order to use chemical agents on protesters during the president\u2019s notorious Lafayette Square photo op. Milley and Esper ultimately decided to accompany Trump on his walk across the square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI should not have been there,\u201d Milley said in a National Defense University video<\/a> a few days later. \u201cMy presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milley would be harder to fire than Esper. He was confirmed<\/a> by the Senate for a four-year term as chairman in 2019 by a vote of 89 to 1. Replacing him with a political loyalist would be difficult because the Joint Chiefs chairman position has specific requirements, including that it must be filled by a senior military commander (although Trump could exert a waiver). Milley has also worked to stay in Trump\u2019s personal good graces, more successfully than Esper. But officials warned that might not stop the White House officials who want him gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, MAGA loyalists are moving in to take advantage of the vacancies already created. Anderson\u2019s sudden departure leaves the Pentagon\u2019s policy shop in the hands of Anthony<\/a> Tata<\/a>, a Trump loyalist who once called President Barack Obama a \u201cterrorist leader.\u201d Tata withdrew his previous nomination<\/a> in August for the undersecretary job amid criticism from lawmakers about his past statements and lack of qualifications. He has been serving since then as an \u201cofficial performing the duties of the deputy undersecretary of defense for policy,\u201d a Pentagon statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Kernan, officials told me the White House intends to install staunch Trump loyalist Ezra Cohen-Watnick as acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Cohen-Watnick, who was pushed out<\/a> as senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council by H.R. McMaster in 2017, has been serving<\/a> as the Pentagon\u2019s deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats since May. Stewart is reportedly being replaced by Kash Patel, an NSC staffer who previously worked for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump passed over Norquist on Monday to appoint Christopher C. Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, to the acting defense secretary position. Miller, a former Special Forces officer, is seen as more loyal to the political agenda of the president. Democratic lawmakers are already calling on him<\/a> to follow the rule of law and the Constitution if Trump asks him to intervene in the election or the transition.AD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several officials told me that a group of Trump loyalists is seizing the opportunity to purge the Pentagon (and several other agencies<\/a>) largely without close supervision from the president, who remains focused on fighting the outcome of the election. By installing themselves in top jobs, these officials are stalling the transition, settling scores and advancing their own ambitions. Many officials in the agencies they are taking over are also now wondering whether the loyalists\u2019 plan includes helping Trump resist leaving office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s decision to jettison Esper only days after the election was a long time coming, and it wasn\u2019t just about Esper\u2019s opposition to using active duty troops against protesters in June, as many have reported<\/a>. Esper also broke with Trump on the Confederate symbols issue, failed to offer full-throated support when Trump pardoned a soldier<\/a> convicted of war crimes, and committed various other perceived acts of disloyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s odd is that Trump mocked Esper for being too soft, repeating that some call him \u201cYesper,\u201d which seems to indicate Esper was too loyal to Trump. In his exit interview<\/a> with the Military Times, which he gave on Nov. 4 because he knew what was coming, Esper insisted he was not a \u201cyes man\u201d because he didn\u2019t lavish effusive praise on Trump, like other senior officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that doesn\u2019t capture the whole complicated reality, since Esper also took actions aimed at demonstrating his loyalty to the president (such as defending Trump\u2019s troop withdrawals<\/a> and efforts to extort allies<\/a> in public). He was trying to please everybody and failed to satisfy anyone. That position was ultimately untenable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment of truth will come if and when the General Services Administration certifies<\/a> that Joe Biden won the election, making it the law of the land. Trump may order his officials not to comply. That could force every senior official, including Milley, to choose between following the law or staying loyal to the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If such a development comes to pass, the continuing crisis atop the Pentagon and across the government would reach a new and dangerous level, leaving our country during this fraught transition even more unstable and unsafe than it has already become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Josh Rogin<\/a>Josh Rogin is a columnist for the Global Opinions section of The Washington Post. He writes about foreign policy and national security. Rogin is also a political analyst for CNN. He previously worked for Bloomberg View, the Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, Congressional Quarterly, Federal Computer Week and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Follow<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Link to video: https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video\/national\/trump-fires-defense-secretary-esper-via-tweet\/2020\/11\/09\/1e9a4bd5-ac09-4822-a648-95410dd80102_video.html President Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper in a Nov. 9 tweet, marking the fourth Pentagon chief the president has let go during his administration. (Reuters) Opinion by Josh Rogin Columnist November 10, 2020 (WashingtonPost.com) It\u2019s becoming clear that President Trump\u2019s firing of Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16504"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16504"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16508,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16504\/revisions\/16508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}