The national security decision making process has failed the nation and is long overdue for an overhaul on the level of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986.
The United States has been continuously involved in wars and military operations throughout the past quarter century. The outcomes of those wars and operations have been disastrous for the long term security of the United States, the Middle East, and Europe. After a good start in Afghanistan, we settled into counterinsurgency and nation building and in the words of one general, “muddled along” for 20 years until the disastrous and disgraceful withdrawal in 2021 that returned the country to the Taliban with more power than they had before.
We went to war in Iraq under false pretenses, took down the government with a force too small to control the country, and consequently precipitated the rise of al Qaeda in Iraq and ISIS, which was disastrous for the Iraqi people, Christians and Yazidis in Nineveh, and Jews in Baghdad and sparked a flow of refugees into Europe. We eliminated Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, becoming involved in the Libyan Civil War, which created an ungoverned space in North Africa through which flowed terrorists and weapons into Africa and more refugees into Europe. We attempted to remove Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria and exacerbated the civil war there, also contributing to the rise of ISIS and flows of refugees into Europe.
At home we radically depleted our stocks of artillery shells and advanced weapons while pursuing a policy of supporting Ukraine for the purpose of weakening Russia, which has in the end resulted in exactly the opposite. And we allowed the Commandant of the Marine Corps to radically reshape the capabilities of that service, something that only the Congress has the Constitutional authority to do.
At every stage, national security decision makers in the United States assured us that these were sound decisions that should be left to the experts, and each of those decisions has resulted or has the potential to result in strategic disaster. The flows of refugees into Europe caused by wars that we instigated or exacerbated have likely changed Europe permanently.
At the tactical and operational levels, the United States military is the best in the world. However, the decision making and execution at the strategic level which is done by civilians in the national security establishment and the most senior military officers (3 and 4 stars) as been abysmal. Additionally, Congress has completely abdicated its oversight role. It is long past time to overhaul the process.