Esper’s end-around on Trump harmed civil-military relations
By: Jud Crane  
Last fall, senior civilian and military leaders in the U.S. Department of Defense agreed that Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost and Army Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson should be the second and third women to head a combatant command, as reported by The New York Times. Then they made a mistake: They played politics and hit pause.
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told the Times that the two were the “best officers for the jobs.†By his own account, Esper played a key role in not advancing their selection package to the White House, as Esper feared that any general officer candidates who were not white men would be rejected by then-President Donald Trump.
His heart may have been in the right place, but ultimately Esper made the wrong choice to delay. In his decision to wait out the clock until Trump left office, he risked denying two combatant commands leadership from the best officers available, politicized general officer selection and promotions, and rationalized a decision to let personal characteristics drive the selection process — setting the Department of Defense down the path of another broken civil-military relations norm.
https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2021/02/25/espers-end-around-on-trump-harmed-civil-military-relations/
