McCain Panel Makes Ambitious Attempt To Streamline Balkanized Military Chain Of Command (from Forbes)

The Senate Armed Services Committee completed work on a 1,666-page defense authorization bill before departing for the Memorial Day recess that will occupy center stage on the Senate floor come June 6.  The most important initiative in this year’s bill is a series of proposals for streamlining the nation’s military chain of command, which has become too big and top-heavy to respond quickly to threats crossing organizational boundaries.  The committee proposes to slash the number of general officers and senior Pentagon civilians by 25% while capping the size of the National Security Council staff and implementing various other reforms — all with an eye to achieving greater “strategic integration” of the military chain of command.  I have written a commentary for Forbes here.