#thomas donilon

In 2010, the president tapped Tom Donilon for National Security Advisor, which troubled Robert Scheer of The Nation. “Why in the world would President Obama, whose legacy has been sabotaged by a housing crisis that Donilon helped create and conceal, have hired him to run the most sensitive position of public trust in his administration?” Donilon was a skilled political player, Scheer wrote, but as the president so often demonstrated, “it’s the top hustlers of whom he seems enamored.” In similar style, Robert Gates predicted that Donilon would be a “disaster” as national security advisor.

In Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of State at War, Gates wrote that Donilon characterized the United States military as “in revolt” and “insubordinate.” Donilon, who had never been in the military, “bridled” when Gen. McChrystal announced a “counterinsurgency” strategy in Afghanistan. Here Donilon was only advancing official administration policy. As Gates explained, “troops risking their lives need to be told that their goal is to ‘defeat’ those trying to kill them. But such terms were viewed in the White House as borderline insubordinate political statements by generals.”

According to James Mann, Donilon amassed “enormous internal control” over American foreign policy, Even so, “few news outlets have profiled Donilon, who generally prefers to operate behind closed doors.”

In a June, 2013, speech to the Asia Society, Donilon said, “I disagree with the premise put forward by some historians and theorists that a rising power and an established power are somehow destined for conflict.” No clarification that the “rising power” is a Communist dictatorship and one of the most murderous regimes in history, and the “established power” a constitutional democracy. As Donilon saw it, “a deeper U.S.-China military-to-military dialogue is central to addressing many of the sources of insecurity and potential competition between us.”  (emphasis added)

What Would You Ask obama's National Security Advisor? #askasia

On Monday, March 11, at Asia Society in New York, President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon will offer the Obama administration’s views on the path ahead for the United States in Asia. He'll also take some of your questions.