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Less tarred by war, Navy takes more top posts

Is the Navy coming to the rescue?

With Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen set to be nominated to replace Marine Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the sea service may soon occupy the two of the most prominent positions in the military. Pending Senate approval, Mullen would join Adm. William Fallon, who as head of U.S. Central Command is in charge of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as two top military advisors to President Bush. Additionally, Navy admirals now head U.S. Pacific, Southern and Special Operations commands.

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, said along with Fallon at CentCom, Mullen’s nomination is an example of Defense Secretary Robert Gates turning to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England for recommendations for top Pentagon posts. England was Navy secretary prior to becoming the second-in-command in the Defense Department, and one of the few survivors of the Donald Rumsfeld-led Pentagon.

“While the Army and Air Force have seen their civilian service secretaries forced out during the Bush years, Navy secretary Gordon England rose to become the deputy secretary of defense, running large swaths of the defense establishment so that Secretary Gates could focus on Iraq,” Thompson writes in a recent issue briefing distributed via e-mail.

Mackenzie Eaglen, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, agrees that Gates has deferred to England to run day-to-day operations at the Pentagon. But she says Mullen’s nomination is more about his lack of “Iraq baggage” than his uniform.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley has irritated many lawmakers on the Hill with his stances on certain issues, particularly in regard to the Reserve and National Guard, while Mullen has managed to demonstrate he can build consensus in the challenging arena of shipbuilding. With his 313-ship plan for the future fleet, Mullen convinced lawmakers that he can “move a tough issue,” she said.

Further, Eaglen said, Mullen currently heads a service that has a strong presence in the Persian Gulf and a growing influence in places such as West Africa. The Navy’s engagement around the world shows a focus on the “war after Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said.

Thompson argues Mullen will bring pragmatism to the Joint Chiefs that did not exist during Rumsfeld’s tenure as defense secretary.

“Mullen is known within the Navy as a consummate programmer who can rigorously link requirements to resources,” Thompson writes. “He thus matches the technocratic mindset of Secretary Gates in eschewing ideology for practical problem-solving. Much of what has gone wrong for the Bush Administration, both in its counter-terror policies and in its transformation agenda, is traceable to an excessive reliance on faith-based ideas. The new team at the Pentagon will be more concerned with what the numbers show than whether policies are politically correct.”

Doug Berenson, a defense analyst with DeticaDFI, said Mullen should bring a “constructive perspective” to the Joint Chiefs and has experience working with allies in “challenging circumstances.”

Moreover, the nomination of an Army or Marine Corps general would have brought up the management of the war in Iraq, something Mullen has no fingerprints on, Berenson added.

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