White House can be a tough fit for ex-military officers

By Anne E. Kornblut and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 25, 2010; A02

President Obama's firing of retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair as director of national intelligence highlights a pattern of problems involving senior officials in Obama's administration who once served in the upper ranks of the military.

In addition to Blair, national security adviser James L. Jones, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl W. Eikenberry and Sudan special envoy L. Scott Gration have faced questions about their performance inside and outside the government. All four achieved the rank of admiral or general before joining the administration.

White House officials say that, other than Blair, the men have largely succeeded after sometimes difficult starts, and that they have the president's support. But their transition from rigid military chains of command to an administration where decision-making often follows different channels has been turbulent.

"As savvy as many of these senior officers have been, this White House is a highly charged political environment," said Stephen Flanagan, who served on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration. "This is alien to a lot of them. And this is a less hierarchical administration, with a lot of National Security Council staff seeming to feel they have a great deal of license in adjudicating some of these issues."

Questions of how former military officials fit in this administration are timely, given that Obama is said to be favoring retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. as Blair's replacement.

The president also has had problems with advisers from civilian backgrounds. Last November, he fired White House counsel Gregory B. Craig after months of tumult over the administration's inability to meet its deadline to close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Analysts say Obama, who has not served in the military, turned to former generals and admirals in part to dispel fears, raised mostly by his conservative critics, that he would not be tough enough in foreign affairs.

He also kept retired Army Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, President George W. Bush's point person on Iraq and Afghanistan. White House officials say that the president trusts Lute and that he played a large role in shaping the new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.

"Insofar as there have been issues with these people, there are unique circumstances around each of them," said a senior administration official who often works with Blair, Jones, Eikenberry and Gration and so spoke about their roles on the condition of anonymity. "It is hard to tie a thread through all of them with their military background alone."

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, a retired Air Force colonel, said it would be a "mistake to suggest that military officials can't succeed in a civilian capacity" in the current administration or any other. "If a particular officer falls short, it often says more about the particular challenge than the individual himself or herself," he said.

When retired Adm. Stansfield Turner took over the CIA in the Carter administration, he was accused of trying to impose a military order to the institution. But the former flag officers in this administration have been accused, in some cases, of having too light a touch.

Blair, a former commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, probably became a short-timer after a young Nigerian man boarded a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day allegedly with explosives sewn into his underwear. Obama said afterward that the incident marked "a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had," Blair's chief responsibility.

Jones, a retired four-star Marine general who served as supreme allied commander in Europe, began his tenure amid criticism that he was exerting too little authority. His chief concern early on was broadening the mission of the National Security Council to better reflect the transnational threats facing the country, including global warming and energy security.

But Jones often found his direct line to Obama interrupted by advisers with closer connections to the president. And in a White House where 18-hour days are routine, Jones often left around 6 p.m. His absence sometimes meant a loss in clout. "Every national security adviser is different," the senior official said.

Gration, a retired Air Force major general, has the close personal relationship with Obama that Jones lacks. But that has not translated to stature within the State Department or among congressional leaders. To them, he has appeared out of his depth in dealing with Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, whom the International Criminal Court indicted on war crimes charges over the conflict in Darfur.

An administration official said that Gration "deserves a lot more credit publicly than he's being given" for helping address a complicated mix of issues in Sudan.

Eikenberry, a retired lieutenant general, is now the top U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan, where he had served as a military commander. Obama and his advisers thought he would an ideal diplomat in the war zone, requiring virtually no on-the-job learning.

During the strategy review last fall, Eikenberry argued sharply against sending additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan. His cables explaining his rationale, rooted largely in his distrust of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, were leaked to the media and put him publicly at odds with U.S. policy.

White House officials say Obama appreciated the dissent, believing it forced Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, to better justify his request for additional resources. But administration officials also acknowledge that Eikenberry has infuriated many at the State Department.

Staff writer Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.