Rumors swirled this week that Secretary Pete Hegseth is prepping a list of top Pentagon brass for the chopping block, but it’s not the first time an administration has cleaned out top military commanders to align with new political goals.
Five months into office in 2009, President Barack Obama relieved Army Gen. David McKiernan as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan – making McKiernan the first wartime commander to be dismissed since Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1951.
He was replaced by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who had led special operations forces in Iraq, on the advice of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who wanted “fresh eyes” in the drawn-out Afghanistan conflict.
“We have a new strategy, a new mission and a new ambassador. I believe that new military leadership is also needed,” Gates said at a news conference.
OFFICIALS PUSH BACK ON CLAIMS OF ‘LIST’ OF GENERALS HEGSETH PLANS TO FIRE AT PENTAGON
Days before he was summoned to meet with Obama about the job, McChrystal had given a speech in London on the need for a military buildup in Afghanistan. Shortly afterward, Obama authorized the deployment of 33,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Only a year into his command, McChrystal resigned, pushed out by Obama after reportedly badmouthing White House officials, and was replaced by Gen. David Petraeus.
Obama also fired Gen. James Mattis as head of U.S. Central Command – and Trump once quipped that the “only thing” he and Obama had in common was “the honor of firing Jim Mattis.”
Obama and Mattis fell out over the withdrawal from Iraq. “Central Command, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the new Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, who had replaced Bob Gates, continued to recommend to the White House retaining a residual force, as did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” Mattis wrote in his book ‘Call Sign Chaos.’
$1,300 COFFEE CUPS, 8,000% OVERPAY FOR SOAP DISPENSERS SHOW WASTE AS DOGE LOCKS IN ON PENTAGON
Obama, who promised to “finish the job” in Afghanistan after he withdrew troops from Iraq in 2011, surged as many as 100,000 troops into Afghanistan, then drew them out at a rapid-fire pace that many in the military advised against, finishing his term in 2017 with 8,400 American troops on the ground. Ending the war also evaded the subsequent Trump administration, which set a removal deadline that fell under the following Biden administration and resulted in the messy withdrawal in August 2021 and the deaths of 13 U.S. troops.
But the Obama presidency was marred by reports of a schism between the White House and the military.
One general, upon returning from Afghanistan, reportedly said he felt that the Obama White House wanted the military to be “seen and not heard.”
In his memoir, “Duty,” Gates blamed then-Vice President Joe Biden, who had pushed against the initial surge in Afghanistan, for Obama’s poor relationship with the military.
“I thought Biden was subjecting Obama to Chinese water torture, every day saying ‘the military can’t be trusted,’ ” he wrote.
In 2012, the Navy removed and replaced Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette as commander of an aircraft carrier strike group deployed in the Middle East over allegations of inappropriate leadership judgment. The Navy Inspector General later found that Gaouette had made racially insensitive remarks in emails. The Navy denied assertions that Gaouette had been dismissed for providing assistance during the Benghazi attack without orders.
In October 2013, the Air Force fired the two-star general in charge of 450 nuclear missiles, Michael Carey, due to “loss of trust and confidence in his leadership and judgment.” That same week, Obama fired the number-two nuclear commander, Vice Adm. Tim Giardina, from U.S. Strategic Command after he was involved in a criminal investigation into using counterfeit gambling chips in a poker game at a western Iowa casino.
Obama fired Army Gen. Michael Flynn as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 over “insubordination,” which Flynn claimed had stemmed from criticisms he had made about Obama not being tough enough on Islamic extremism.
Obama’s moves to slim down the armed forces and reinvent social policies to protect minority groups proved contentious among military brass. Critics claimed that his abrupt troop drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan had allowed for ISIS to gain ground, while supporters painted him as a Nobel Peace Prize winner who had kicked off a reorientation of the U.S. from the Middle East theater to the Indo-Pacific.
Wildfire-like rumors swirled around Washington on Thursday of a “list” of names Hegseth has reportedly circulated among congressional leaders of generals and admirals he planned to fire. But members and staff of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees had seen no such list.
