RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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To discuss the resignation of Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and the tension inside the Pentagon under Pete Hegseth, Geoff Bennett spoke with Frank Kendall of the Center for American Progress. He was Air Force Secretary during the Biden administration and co-wrote "Lethal Autonomy: The Future of Warfare Whether We Like It or Not." Geoff Bennett: And for perspective now, we turn to Frank Kendall. He was secretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration. He's now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and co-author of the book "Lethal Autonomy: The Future of Warfare Whether We Like It or Not." Thank you for being here. Frank Kendall, Former Secretary of the Air Force: Thank you. Geoff Bennett: How significant is the resignation of the Army secretary and what does it mean for the institution? Frank Kendall: Well, it's a lack of continuity. There will be a transition phase. There are people who can step in. There's an undersecretary who's serving now. The chief of staff of the Army is also a vacancy right now. But there's a vice chief of staff who's a likely nominee. So the Pentagon is pretty good at transitioning as people come and go. There will be continuity. What there won't be is new strategic leadership. The people who are there are acting roles, and they really can't take any major steps, make any major decisions until somebody permanent comes into those jobs. Geoff Bennett: So what's the impact of that leadership vacuum? Frank Kendall: The trains keep running. The things that normally get done day to day get done. But the strategic leadership that will make any major changes in policy or in anything else about the Army, its budget, its structure, and so on, will have to wait until these leaders are replaced. Geoff Bennett: What effect do the firings, the resignations, the vacancies have on the people who remain, particularly their willingness to offer candid advice? Frank Kendall: An individual or two leaving like this is not a big deal. That happens fairly routinely. But the scope of what Secretary Hegseth in particular has done is totally unprecedented. A very large number, I think over two dozen, senior officers in particular have been removed without cause. That is unheard of. There are also reports that he's taking people off of promotion lists. That's unheard of. In my tenure as secretary of the Air Force, that never happened. The boards that promote these people do a good job. We review each of them, and then the nominees move on. He's -- Secretary Hegseth is attempting to impose a number of I will call them culture war initiatives on the Pentagon to structure the leadership, and it's created a climate of fear throughout the entire institution. I have never seen anything quite like this. Geoff Bennett: This climate of fear, what responsibility do the most senior military officials have when advising the president or defense secretary? Is it their job to explain what the military can do, or should they be explaining what the military should do, in their best judgment? Frank Kendall: At the most senior levels, they should be doing both. As you go down the ranks, it becomes more about what you're capable of doing. There's always an element of what they should do, because what they do should be legal. It also should be moral and ethical and consistent with our values. Senior officers in particular who directly advise political appointees like the secretary of defense or the president, they owe them candid advice that is their best overall estimate of the situation and what should be done. The president does need, and so does the secretary of defense, honest, objective advice from people who are not trying to please them, who are just trying to tell them the truth about what the consequences of any decision they might make would be. Speaking truth to power is a fundamental requirement for those senior jobs. Geoff Bennett: Given the climate of fear that you described, do you believe that's happening at present? Frank Kendall: I'm convinced it's not. Right now, what's happening is, people are very much inclined to tell people what they think they want to hear. People in the military are very concerned about not losing their positions. They're worried about getting their next promotion. That's universal. And they're not going to be dishonest. They're not going to lie necessarily. I have rarely seen that. But they will be influenced by their view of what the boss wants to hear because of the impact it will have on them. Geoff Bennett: And what's that mean down the chain of command for combatant commanders, for instance? If they get an order that is advised to be legal, but they have concerns about whether it's the right thing to do, what should they do? Frank Kendall: This administration has consciously replaced legal advisers with handpicked people who I think are viewed as loyal and compliant. It's -- look, lawyers can be very creative in creating justifications under the law for all sorts of things. A number of things are happening right now. I think the most egregious is attacks on the drug boats, which almost every legal authority says is illegal, a violation of international domestic law. These are nonjudicial killings. They're executions, essentially. We're not at war with drug dealers. But there are some lawyers who will support the president's position that we're now in a war and it's just -- it's free -- you're free to kill these people. Credible people don't agree with that. But when you put the legal authority that should govern the department into the position like that, where he's supporting the president, then you leave our senior military leaders in a very difficult position. If at that point they say, no, I can't do that's illegal, I don't care what you say, then they're subject to potentially being court-martialed or being fired from their jobs. It's an awkward, difficult position, but they still have the duty to do the right thing. They s...
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