Ash Carter, the United States’ soon-to-be-defense secretary, won’t shy away from disagreeing with the White House.
At a confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate last week, Ash Carter, the Obama administration’s pick to replace Chuck Hagel as U.S. secretary of defense, told lawmakers that he wouldn’t be pushed around as defense secretary. Carter, a wonkish thinker on defense and security, is likely to stick to his word and contradict the White House on important matters of policy. Carter, in some ways, risks inviting the same sort of isolation Chuck Hagel faced within the cabinet. However, where previous defense secretaries may have eventually rubber-stamped White House initiatives, Carter will be one to push back. As one former White House official told POLITICO’s Michael Crowley, Carter is “arrogant and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.”
U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), however, is skeptical of Carter’s posturing. ”I’m confident that he has no influence whatsoever,” McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the press. McCain remained unconvinced by Carter’s affirmative answer to the question: ”If security conditions on the ground in Afghanistan degrade in 2016, would you consider recommending to the president revisions to the size and pace of the drawdown plan announced by the president in order to adequately address those security conditions?” McCain notes, “All of the decisions are made by three or four people at the White House level” — a group involving the president, the national security adviser, and occasionally a coterie of senior intelligence officials.
Read the full story at The Diplomat