OUT?? National Security Adviser: Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster

U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to replace H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser, The Washington Post and VOA reported.

VOA Report Continues:

McMaster’s ouster is part of a major shake-up at the top levels of the administration, prompting fears that there will be other departures at the White House according to the reports.

“There will always be change,” the president told reporters Thursday. “And I think you want to see change. I want to also see different ideas.”

Sanders was asked earlier Thursday at the daily White House press briefing to describe the current relationship between Trump and McMaster.

“The president and General McMaster are continuing to work together to put pressure on Russia to do the right thing. Again, I think you can see what the administration’s viewpoint is simply by looking at the actions that we took today by placing new sanctions on Russia,” Sanders said.

Trump has sparred with McMaster, however, over the past few weeks.

The president chastised McMaster last month after the national security adviser said Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election was “incontrovertible.”

“General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems,” Trump tweeted.

BACKGROUND U.S. President Donald Trump named Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, a military strategist who has spent his entire career in the U.S. armed forces as the new national security adviser, VOA reported.

Trump called the 54-year-old McMaster “a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience.”

Retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, who had been his acting adviser, will now serve as chief of staff of the National Security Council.

A much-decorated soldier

McMaster is a much-decorated soldier, winning a Silver Star early in his Army career leading U.S. troops in their destruction of 80 Iraqi Republican Guard tanks without U.S. losses in a battle against Saddam Hussein’s forces during their 1991 invasion of Kuwait. McMaster has held numerous key Army postings over the last 25 years, according to the VOA report.

Three years ago, Time magazine put him on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, calling him “the architect of the future U.S. Army.”

Trump’s chief of staff said Sunday that the person selected to be the next national security adviser — McMaster, as it turns out — will have full authority over staffing decisions for the National Security Council.

That issue over control was reportedly one reason former Navy admiral Robert Harward turned down the job last week.

“The president has said very clearly that the new director will have total and complete say over the makeup of the NSC and all of the components of the NSC,” White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said on Fox News Sunday. Harward was Trump’s first choice to replace Flynn.

Panetta voices his concerns

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday the turmoil surrounding the key position has made U.S. national security operations “dysfunctional.”

“What happens if there’s a major crisis that faces this country?” Panetta said. “If Russia engages in a provocation, if Iran does something stupid, if North Korea does something stupid and we have to respond, where is the structure to be able to evaluate that threat, consider it, and provide options to the president?

“Right now, that’s dysfunctional, and that’s what worries me a great deal,” said Panetta, who also once served as director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

In January when McMaster was promoted and chosen to lead development of future force, Gen. David G. Perkins, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Army Capabilities Integration Center (TRADOC) commanding general, who promoted McMaster praised him highly. “Although TRADOC is called the architect of the Army, Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) is really the head architect, and the future of the force will be in McMaster’s hands,” he said.

Perkins said not only is McMaster a gifted and inspired officer, but he has the background required to lead change in the Army.

“Throughout his career, he has been both exceptionally competent and exceptionally proficient. A highly decorated war hero in multiple conflicts with multiple tours, who has dealt with all the challenges that come with leading Soldiers and their families,” the commanding general said.

More Detailed Bio :

Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster assumed duties as the Director, Army Capabilities Integration Center and Deputy Commanding General, Futures, US Army Training and Doctrine Command on 15 July 2014. Prior to his arrival at Fort Eustis he most recently served as Commanding General, Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning from June 2012 to July 2014. Previously he served as Commander, Combined Joint Inter­Agency Task Force Shafafiyat (Transparency) in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984. He holds a PhD in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. LTG McMaster’s previous command assignments include Eagle Troop, Second Armored Cavalry Regiment in Bamberg, Germany and in Southwest Asia during the 1991 Persian Gulf War; 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry in Schweinfurt Germany from 1999 to 2002; and 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Carson, Colorado and in Iraq from June 2004 to June 2006. Staff assignments include Director of Concept Development and Learning at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command from August 2008 to May 2010; Special Assistant to the Commander, Multinational Force­Iraq from February 2007 to May 2008; Director, Commander’s Advisory Group at US Central Command from May 2003 to 2004; and squadron executive officer and regimental operations officer in the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment from July 1997 to July 1999. He also served as an assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy from 1994 to 1996. LTG McMaster’s military education and training includes the Airborne and Ranger Schools, Armor Officer Basic and Career Courses, the Cavalry Leaders Course, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and a U.S. Army War College fellowship at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. McMaster has also served as a senior consulting fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.