Threats from the president-elect himself led one expert to tell senators on Tuesday that an exception should be granted to allow retired Gen. James Mattis to serve as the defense secretary.
Eliot Cohen, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced and International Studies, defended civilian control of the armed forces at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. But he said he supports a one-time waiver for Mattis to serve as President-elect Trump’s top Pentagon civilian, less than seven years after leaving the armed services.
While Mattis’ revered career and the escalating threat environment in the world contributed to his decision, Cohen said the thing that tipped the scales for him is worries about a Trump presidency, especially his commitment on the campaign trail to use torture against terrorists and their families.
“I have sharply criticized President Obama’s policies, but my concerns pale in comparison with the sense of alarm I feel about the judgment and dispositions of the incoming White House team,” Cohen told the committee. “There is no doubt in my mind that a Secretary Mattis would be a stabilizing and moderating force, preventing wildly stupid, dangerous or illegal things from happening.”
Current law requires someone to be out of the military for at least seven years before serving as the secretary of defense to maintain civilian control of the military. Mattis just retired from the Marine Corps in 2013. The law has only been waived one other time, in 1950, so retired Gen. George Marshall could serve as the defense secretary.
The hearing was required by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a ranking member of the committee, over some concerns about future implications if the law is waived for Mattis.
“The restriction was enacted for good reason,” Reed said.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to vote on this exception for Mattis on Thursday, the same day the former four-star general will appear before the committee for his confirmation hearing, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and chairman of the committee. McCain offered his enthusiastic support for Mattis, as well as the waiver.
“There is no military officer I have met in my lifetime with a deeper understanding of civil-military relations than James Mattis,” McCain said. “His character, judgment, and commitment to defending our nation and its Constitution have earned him the trust of our next commander-in-chief, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and so many serving in our Armed Forces.”
Both witnesses – Cohen and Kathleen Hicks, the director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies – reached the same conclusion: that former generals should not serve as secretary of defense, but that Mattis is worthy of an exception.
The experts pointed to Mattis’ strong grasp of the issues facing the country, the strong state of civil-military relations, and growing threats around the world from ongoing wars in the Middle East to rising tensions with China and Russia.
Still, Hicks and Cohen laid out an extensive list of reasons why a former top military officer should not serve in the top civilian post at the Pentagon, including perceived bias toward his or her former service and encouraged politicization of the military. For these reasons, Hicks said it’s crucial that a waiver for Mattis does not set precedent for this to become the norm in the future.
“A permanent elimination or modification of this statute would be detrimental to the health o four civil-military relations and our national security, she said.
Hicks also expressed concern that a number of Trump’s top-level staff picks are former military, including retired Gen. John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as the national security advisor.
