H.R. McMaster

Lt.Gen. H.R. McMaster is the current National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump.

Soldier-scholar

McMaster holds a Ph.D in American History from the University of North Carolina. His dissertation is a harsh criticism of President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, and the Joint Chiefs conduct of the Vietnam war. With a clear reference to Vietnam-era news reporting, McMaster answered punctiliously how journalists' thinking fits into strategic thinking after the Battle of Tal Afar in 2005, “body counts are completely irrelevant.”

His dissertation was turned into a book, Dereliction of Duty, which was recommended and widely read in the Pentagon by the next generation of combat leaders. The New Yorker summarizes it saying, "[T]he Joint Chiefs of Staff, knowing that Johnson and McNamara wanted uncritical support rather than honest advice, and eager to protect their careers, went along with official lies and a split-the-difference strategy of gradual escalation that none of them thought could work."

Iraqi insurgency 2007-2008

Main article: Troop surge

CBS News commented, "Aside from David Petraeus himself, probably the most celebrated soldier of the Iraq War has been Col. H.R. McMaster." From August 2007 to August 2008 McMaster was part of an "elite team of officers advising US commander," General Petraeus. Eurasia analyst Lauren Goodrich described McMaster as one of the chief architects behind CENTCOM strategy in the Iraq insurgency, and for Afghanistan and Syria.

Reforming counter-insurgency doctrine

From the time Baghdad fell in 2003, American leadership at the highest levels, beginning with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, were reluctant to admit an insurgency - an armed uprising against the new Baghdad regime - was taking place.

Traditional American counter-insurgency cuts deeply against the Army’s institutional instincts which focus on combat operations. The Army’s most recent field manual on the subject was two decades old focusing on hunting people and an approach called “kill-capture.” Ultimately there are more insurgents than when they started.

Afghanistan

McMaster's next assignment was to examine the roots of a growing insurgency in Afghanistan where he found a very different war. Lack of public support for the government of Hamid Karzai was predicated on corruption exacerbated by massive amounts of foreign aid dumped into the country. The abuse of official positions of power for personal gain, McMaster told interviewers, “is robbing Afghanistan of much-needed revenue, undermining rule of law, degrading the effectiveness of state institutions, and eroding popular confidence in the government.” The Wall Street Journal published an article saying that trying to stop corruption in Afghanistan is like trying to stop the tides. McMaster told the Journal that view is seen as “bigotry masquerading as cultural sensitivity.”

But why did the Taliban collapse so quickly in 2001, he asks. “The fundamental reason was that every Afghan was convinced of the inevitability of the Taliban’s defeat.”

National Security Advisor

Upon his appointment he received a congratulatory tweet from former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice:

“Hope you will be able to choose your team, have direct reporting and daily access to POTUS, and can eliminate Strategic Initiatives Group.”

The Strategic Initiatives Group was headed by Steve Bannon, who was ousted from the National Security Council staff within weeks, and Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland's departure was announced days later.

See also

• Mike Flynn
• James Mattis
• Dan Coats
• Mike Pompeo
• Steven Mnuchin
• John F. Kelly