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

What NDU looked like from the Pentagon: A big fat pain in the butt

A former Pentagon official writes: [Y]ou probably should have mentioned that the ‘real reason’ everyone hates NDU is because it’s where the OSD SES/seniors go to ‘hide’ after their political appointments/connections expire with a change of administration. [T]his typically happens after the election, but before the new crowd of appointees arrive. [T]hen, from NDU, these ...

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Flickr
Flickr

A former Pentagon official writes:

A former Pentagon official writes:

[Y]ou probably should have mentioned that the ‘real reason’ everyone hates NDU is because it’s where the OSD SES/seniors go to ‘hide’ after their political appointments/connections expire with a change of administration. [T]his typically happens after the election, but before the new crowd of appointees arrive. [T]hen, from NDU, these guys thumb their noses at the JCS and the new political appointees at OSD, and hope they can survive — at NDU — until their team returns. [T]he JCS especially hates this — and you can’t really blame them. [I]f there is any partisan difference in this practice, the dem[ocrat]s to it way more than the rep[ublican]s do, probably because more dem[ocrat]s typically originate from academia. [I]’ve watched this happen over the last 30 years, and had to deal with it when I was [at OSD].

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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