Obama denied Mattis plans to hit Iran over involvement in US troop deaths

quote:

---

Robert M. Gates, Mr. Obama’s first defense secretary, wrote in his memoirs that Mr. Obama deeply distrusts senior military leaders and suspects them of conspiring against him. He recalled one meeting in which the president resorted to a clipped “That’s an order” to the top brass.

“That order was unnecessary and insulting, proof positive of the depth of the Obama White House distrust of the nation’s military leadership,” a “shocked” Mr. Gates wrote.

The controlling nature of the Obama White House and the staff took micromanagement and operational meddling to a new level,” he said in his memoir, “Duty.” “I think Obama considered time spent with generals and admirals an obligation.”

Mr. Gates’ successor, Leon E. Panetta, wrote in his memoir, “Worthy Fights,” that the White House — read Mr. Obama — saw generals who swayed from its talking points as conspirators. One incident involved a disagreement over troop levels in Afghanistan.

“The White House saw this as a coordinated effort to limit the president’s decision space, while Gates saw it as evidence that the Pentagon brass was unable to stay on message,” Mr. Panetta wrote. “For my part, it seemed that the leading generals saw the problem the same way and weren’t good about keeping quiet, but not that they were organizing a campaign against their president.”

Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal ended up getting fired by the White House as the top commander in Afghanistan after he disagreed publicly with the strategy and his staff made unkind remarks about senior officials in a published story.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, a close adviser to Mr. Trump, said he was fired by Mr. Obama as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency because he pushed for identifying the terrorist threat as radical Islam and for wanting to do more about it. Mr. Obama refuses to link Islam the religion with terrorism.

Mr. Flynn defended Mr. Trump’s “rubble” characterization on “Fox & Friends.”

“He’s absolutely right. There’s a severe disconnect between this White House and frankly the president and our military,” the former intelligence chief said. “I mean, there’s a lot of frustration within the ranks, and there’s a lot of frustration I know in the senior leadership about what we’re not able to do.”

LINK

---

quote:

---

LINK

---

quote:

---

according to former senior U.S. officials speaking to the Washington Post.

---