LG Hal Mcmaster, National Security Adviser (2017 onwards)

[davidbfpo]

Following his appointment as President Trump's National Security Adviser (NSA) time for a new thread on this soldier's career.

There is a thread McMaster on war (merged thread) which started in 2006, with 108 posts and 118k views. This has now been closed.

Needless to say there are a number of SW Journal articles and SWJ Blog entries of late. A small number of SWJ Blog items from 2017 will be merged here; those on SW Journal can be id'd by a search.

[davidbfpo]

Catching up on my reading I found this article in The Spectator (UK), which may have appeared elsewhere in the USA and the author is Andrew Bacevich, a name familiar to many here and a Forum member.

The title almost gives it away: Trump’s new security chief is a fearless truth-teller. Is that enough? H.R. McMaster has made his name as a military strategist. His new job demands even more.

Link:http://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/02/t...s-that-enough/

He concludes:

Through a twist of fate, McMaster now finds himself called upon to fill the role of blunt, candid truth-teller for his generation of military officers — and to do so while serving a commander-in-chief who gives little evidence of valuing those qualities. Yet circumstances demand more than mere straight talk. Only by transcending the role of ‘military strategist’ will General McMaster succeed in doing what duty plainly requires: identifying a course that leads away from permanent war and imparts to what remains of US grand strategy a semblance of coherence.