WASHINGTON - US President-elect Donald Trump has picked retired General John Kelly as secretary of homeland security, the third general to serve his cabinet fuelling concern, fuelling concern about heavy military influence in his administration.
Trump’s choice of Kelly - and his continued deliberations about tapping as many as two more military figures for other posts - has intensified worries among some members of Congress and national security experts that the new administration’s policies may be shaped disproportionately by military commanders, The Washington Post said in a report."I’m concerned,” said Senator Chris Murphy, a Democratic member of the Foreign Relations Committee. “Each of these individuals may have great merit in their own right, but what we’ve learned over the past 15 years is that when we view problems in the world through a military lens, we make big mistakes.”
Despite making regular remarks on the campaign trail disparaging the nation’s generals, Trump has long shown an affinity for them, it was pointed out. In shaping his administration, Trump has prioritized what one adviser described as “can-do, no-bull types,” which the president-elect sees as a deliberate contrast from the personnel choices President Brack Obama has made.
If confirmed, Kelly and defence secretary nominee James Mattis, a retired Marine general with the nickname “Mad Dog,” would join retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s pick for White House national security adviser. Meanwhile, retired Army Gen. David Petraeus is under consideration for secretary of state, and Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers is a contender for director of national intelligence.
Other figures with military backgrounds are populating the administration as well, including Congressman Mike Pompeo, a Republican who graduated from West Point and served in the Army in the Gulf War, is Trump’s nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, while Stephen Bannon, a former naval officer, will serve the president in the West Wing as chief strategist and senior counsellor.
Trump, who received multiple draft deferments and who has no military experience beyond his years at a military boarding school, is said to be drawn to generals by their swagger and dazzled by their tales from the battlefield. Many of those he has been interviewing and consulting have spent much of the past decade and a half at war, intimately involved in the US fight against global terrorism. Trump’s choices also are striking considering his noninterventionist posture in the campaign and sharp criticism of the war in Iraq and other military adventures.
As Trump formally introduced Mattis as his pick to run the Pentagon, he relished in recalling the general’s exploits, and he has likened him to George Patton, the legendary World War II Army general. “’Mad Dog’ plays no games, right.”
Trump told a roaring crowd Tuesday night in Fayetteville, North Carolina, “Led the forces that went after the Taliban and commanded the First Marine Division in Iraq. He is one of the most effective generals that we’ve had in many, many decades.”
To be confirmed, Mattis would have to receive a waiver from Congress because the law requires the defence secretary be a civilian for at least seven years before taking office. Mattis retired in 2013.
