The US Military has shrunk significantly on Obama’s watch, as has our military preparedness. In a recent report from FOX News, Bret Baier interviewed three of Obama’s former defense secretaries and they all tell a similar story.
They describe Obama surrounded by a young and inexperienced staff, lacking any veterans with a deep distrust of the military and a strong desire to enforce Obama’s will.
The Washington Free Beacon has more:
Obama’s Former Pentagon Chiefs: Military Suffered From Overbearing, Inexperienced White House
The U.S. military has been hindered by an overbearing and inexperienced White House under President Barack Obama, according to each of his three former defense secretaries, causing the Pentagon to struggle to carry out operations and make decisions.
“It was the operational micromanagement that drove me nuts, of White House and [National Security Council] staffers calling senior commanders out in the field and asking them questions, of second-guessing commanders,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Bret Baier in a new Fox News special called “Rising Threats, Shrinking Military.”
Baier posted clips from the program Wednesday that did not make it to the final cut.
Gates was a holdover from the George W. Bush administration, and Obama kept him on as Pentagon chief. He described how, when he served in the White House, he would have “had [his] head handed to [him], probably personally by the president,” if he tried to call a field commander while circumventing senior Pentagon officials.
“I told the combatant commanders and field commanders … if you get a call from some White House or National Security Council staffer, you tell them to call me instead, and then tell them, oh, by the way, go to hell,” Gates said, smiling. “And that’s directly from the secretary of defense.”
Gates’ successor, Leon Panetta, took office in July 2011 and told Baier he had similar concerns with the Obama administration, despite being a long-time Democrat who served as a California congressman for many years and as Bill Clinton’s chief of staff.
Panetta complained that the president’s national security council staff had gotten so large and overbearing in recent years, creating massive inefficiency with creating foreign and defense policy.
Watch the video below:
Is anyone surprised by any of this? The left thinks it knows the best way to do everything and Obama has surrounded himself with people who believe he can do no wrong.
As a result, the next president is going to inherit a smaller and weakened military.
(Image:Source)
