Trump Announces H.R. McMaster as New National Security Advisor

[HAPPY2BME]

President Trump has announced Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his new national security advisor. (McMaster is the man sitting to Trump’s right in the above photo.)

This news comes a week after Trump’s previous national security advisor, Michael Flynn, was fired.

Trump had initially selected Vice Admiral Robert Harward for the position, but he turned it down, reportedly due to his conditions not being met by the White House. David Petraeus also reportedly turned down the position after his conditions weren’t met.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/breaking-trump-announces-h-r-mcmaster-as-new-national-security-advisor/

[BlueStateSaint]

LTG McMaster is the real deal.  He wrote a book (Dereliction of Duty) which attacked the generals running the Vietnam War in the early days.  He was a Dragoon in Desert Storm (troop commander of E Troop, 2/2 ACR) and commanded the Brave Rifles (3rd ACR) in Iraq from 2004 to 2006, retaking the border town of Tal Afar and instituting changes to the way that American troops interacted with Iraqis, in that Iraqis started to really trust the Americans and, as a result, led the Brave Rifles to capture a lot of Iraqis loyal to the Ba'thist regime.

Not that it's needed, but as an old Dragoon and Brave Rifle myself, I couldn't be happier about this.  President Trump definitely made the correct decision.

[HAPPY2BME]

LTG McMaster is the real deal.  He wrote a book (Dereliction of Duty) which attacked the generals running the Vietnam War in the early days.  He was a Dragoon in Desert Storm (troop commander of E Troop, 2/2 ACR) and commanded the Brave Rifles (3rd ACR) in Iraq from 2004 to 2006, retaking the border town of Tal Afar and instituting changes to the way that American troops interacted with Iraqis, in that Iraqis started to really trust the Americans and, as a result, led the Brave Rifles to capture a lot of Iraqis loyal to the Ba'thist regime.

Not that it's needed, but as an old Dragoon and Brave Rifle myself, I couldn't be happier about this.  President Trump definitely made the correct decision.

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Well, those are all pluses for McMaster, and he served well at the time needed.  I was in Desert Storm and my son spent 3 years in Iraq with the 1st CAV DIV.

My son and I are both in agreement that mankind will rid himself of racial prejudice before the situation in the Middle East is resolved.  IOW, it will NEVER BE RESOLVED.

My concern with McMaster is that he may be too much of a hawk where Russia is concerned at a critical time when we DO NOT need to approach Russia militarily (but be prepared to), but diplomatically.  I don not believe the Russians were the cause of Hillary Clinton losing the election to Trump, and I do not believe that Russia wants to go to war with the United States.

[BlueStateSaint]

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Well, those are all pluses for McMaster, and he served well at the time needed.  I was in Desert Storm and my son spent 3 years in Iraq with the 1st CAV DIV.

My son and I are both in agreement that mankind will rid himself of racial prejudice before the situation in the Middle East is resolved.  IOW, it will NEVER BE RESOLVED.

My concern with McMaster is that he may be too much of a hawk where Russia is concerned at a critical time when we DO NOT need to approach Russia militarily (but be prepared to), but diplomatically.  I don not believe the Russians were the cause of Hillary Clinton losing the election to Trump, and I do not believe that Russia wants to go to war with the United States.

I don't think that LTG McMaster wants to "take on" the Russians.  I do think that he's committed to NATO, as well as the fight against IS.  I think that, though he may be considered a "hawk," he's also a thoughtful, deep man who fully understands fighting wars, on all levels.  I also think that he will give unvarnished data to President Trump on Russia, IS, and China, who I think will be the US' chief geopolitical adversary.  China has a lot of problems that you don't hear about, and the solutions to them are complex.  Let's remember that China has the US as an adversary, but the Pacific Ocean tends to separate us.  China also has the world's most populous country on its' southern border--India--and its' own Islamist problems.  There's a huge resource-rich region directly north of China that is fairly undefended (Siberia), and would not be too difficult to overrun.

So, LTG McMaster has a whole bunch of security 'situations' to monitor.  My guess is that he's in 'name-tag defilade' already, in the middle of them.

[HAPPY2BME]

Trump's New National Security Adviser a Soldier-Scholar

McMaster replaced retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who was fired last week after Trump determined that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his discussion with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. during the presidential transition. The White House said McMaster was one of four candidates Trump interviewed for the job over the weekend.

McMaster has been heavily involved in the Army's efforts to shape its future force and its way of preparing for war. He is the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, a sort of military think tank, at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

McMaster commanded troops in both American wars in Iraq — in 1991, when he fought in a storied tank battle known as the Battle of 73 Easting, and again in 2005-2006 in one of the most violent periods of the insurgency that developed after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He is credited with using innovative approaches to countering the insurgency in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar when he commanded the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He later served as a special adviser to the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

McMaster, born in 1962, earned a doctoral degree in history from the University of North Carolina. Outside the Army, he may be best known for his 1997 book, "Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam," a searing indictment of the U.S. government's mishandling of the Vietnam War. The book earned him a reputation for being willing to speak truth to power.