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Best Defense: In 2006 H.R. McMaster was mad at me, as I’m sure he is at the
Washington Post now — and why that worries me a lot

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This article was published more than 7 years ago

Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.


IN 2006 H.R. MCMASTER WAS MAD AT ME, AS I’M SURE HE IS AT THE WASHINGTON POST
NOW — AND WHY THAT WORRIES ME A LOT


IN 2006 I WROTE AN ARTICLE PORTRAYING THE SUCCESS OF MCMASTER'S 3RD ARMORED
CAVALRY REGIMENT — AND HE WENT A BIT BATSHIT.

By Thomas E. Ricks, a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
US National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster denies the report of US President
Donald Trump revealing classified information to Russian officials in the Oval
Office, during a statement to the press outside of the West Wing at the White
House in Washington, DC, May 15, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit
should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
US National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster denies the report of US President
Donald Trump revealing classified information to Russian officials in the Oval
Office, during a statement to the press outside of the West Wing at the White
House in Washington, DC, May 15, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit
should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

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for FP subscribers. Subscribe Now | Log In

 * Military

May 16, 2017, 10:53 AM

 

 

Early in 2006 I did a reporting trip to see then-Col. H.R. McMaster and the
regiment he commanded in far northwest Iraq, outside the town of Tal Afar.
Following the visit, I wrote an article portraying the success his 3rd Armored
Cavalry Regiment (ACR) had enjoyed in that town, largely because of the
intelligent, thoughtful approach he took.

I mention this because after the article ran, McMaster, who is now the
president’s national security advisor, went a bit batshit.

After I left his base, I fell sick from some stomach bug, so I went to ground at
the big U.S. base at Balad, a good place to do some quiet writing and recover.
My rest there was interrupted by McMaster. He got ahold of me, quite angry. He
wasn’t upset by the 95 percent of the article that described how he and his
troops subdued al Qaeda in Tal Afar. Rather, he was hopping mad over the
beginning of the story, that contrasted his regiment’s impressive success in
Iraq with the hamfisted, abusive way it had performed on its first tour of duty
in the country before he commanded it.

“The last time the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment served in Iraq, in 2003-04,” my
article began, “its performance was judged mediocre, with a series of abuse
cases growing out of its tour of duty in Anbar province.”




By contrast, I continued, the 3rd ACR’s performance in northern Iraq in 2005-06
under McMaster was striking. I quoted Terry Daly, a respected counterinsurgency
veteran, as concluding that its operations “will serve as a case study in
classic counterinsurgency, the way it is supposed to be done.”

As I recall, my discussions with McMaster continued over the course of a day or
two. He didn’t dispute the basic approach of my article. He was just unhappy
with the way I had presented it, because it had made his life more difficult.

I mention this because when I saw him on television on Monday evening, I heard
exactly the same low-key, aggrieved tone. In a brief appearance outside the
White House, he denounced the Washington Post’s story about President Donald
Trump boasting to Russians about the top secret, highly classified intelligence
he had about terrorism operations and the Middle East. As McMaster spoke, I
recognized that weary, dutiful voice. He was being a good soldier.

That’s not a good sign. When he was a colonel in Iraq, it was one thing for him
to defend the honor of his regiment. But in his current position, he can’t just
be a good soldier.

The worrisome thing is, he knows this. He even wrote a terrific book about the
need for senior military officers to hew to the truth, even when it is
politically unwelcome.

But if he goes down the road he took last night, he will wind up like former
National Security Advisor Colin Powell, whose strong sense of loyalty was
manipulated by the Bush administration to the point of him giving a speech at
the United Nations on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that we now know to have
been almost entirely false.

McMaster and Powell are both Army generals, but there are two big differences
between them. First, McMaster is less politically astute than Powell. Second, he
is better educated.

McMaster also knows Greg Jaffe, one of the Post reporters on the story. I also
know Jaffe well. He succeeded me on the Pentagon beat at two newspapers — first
the Wall Street Journal and then the Post. McMaster surely know that Jaffe is a
careful, studious, even cautious reporter. What he writes, you can take to the
bank.



So my guess is that when McMaster was trotted out before the cameras last night,
he gave up a little piece of his soul. Eliot Cohen, himself a veteran of high
office, warns of “the moment when these high officials can no longer recognize
their own characters for what they once were.” My gut feeling is that McMaster
won’t agree to keep on doing that for very long.

Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images




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 * Military

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. X: @tomricks1

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