Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey couldn’t answer what exactly the U.S. was seeking in Syria Tuesday during questioning from Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) about a resolution authorizing military action there:
DEMPSEY: The answer to whether I support additional support for the moderate opposition is yes.
CORKER: And this authorization will support those activities in addition to responding to the weapons of mass destruction.
DEMPSEY: I don’t know how the resolution will evolve, but I support –
CORKER: What you’re seeking. What is it you’re seeking?
DEMPSEY: I can’t answer that, what we’re seeking.The fact is that it is not the responsibility of the CJCS or any military officer to answer that question. Setting national strategic objectives is the purview of the president in consultation with secretaries of certain executive departments, sometimes with the advice and consent of the Senate or, more rarely, the whole Congress.
The CJCS's responsibility is to determine how, when and where US armed forces play their role in accomplishing those strategic goals, and in many cases there is no role. But the answer to the question of what the United States is seeking in Syria, as a matter of national policy, needs to to be answered by the nation's civilian leaders.
However, what Gen. Dempsey's answer seems to indicate more than that, though, is that the people who need to set those goals have not done so, or at least they have never told him. If the goals had been set and he had been told, he would have responded with words to the effect, "According to the guidance I have been given ... ."
That he did not even say that speaks volumes. There is a real vacuum of strategic thought, planning and guidance at the very top of the national leadership.
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