I Was on the National Security Council. Bannon Doesnt Belong There.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/opinion/i-was-on-the-national-security-council-bannon-doesnt-belong-there.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

Michael G. Mullen, a retired United States Navy admiral, was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011.

. . .

But some of Mr. Trump’s other plans are unsettling and should be remedied as soon as possible — in particular the role he has given to his top political adviser, Stephen K. Bannon.

What’s more, according to Mr. Trump’s plans for the National Security Council, neither the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer and the president’s primary military adviser, nor the director of national intelligence, the president’s primary intelligence adviser, will be a permanent member of the council’s “principals committee,” a core group responsible for formulating policy.

President George W. Bush’s council, on which I served from 2007 through 2009 as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, was arranged similarly to Mr. Trump’s. But it bears noting that under President Obama, both the director of national intelligence and I were permanent members of the principals committee, codifying the importance of these positions.

In my experience there are very few — if any — meetings of the principals committee at which the input of the military and the intelligence community is not vital. With an increasingly belligerent Russia, tensions in the South China Sea and a smoldering Middle East, it makes little sense to minimize the participation of the professionals leading and representing these two groups.

. . .

Having Mr. Bannon as a voting member of the principals committee will have a negative influence on what is supposed to be candid, nonpartisan deliberation. I fear that it will have a chilling effect on deliberations and, potentially, diminish the authority and the prerogatives to which Senate-confirmed cabinet officials are entitled. They, unlike Mr. Bannon, are accountable for the advice they give and the policies they execute.

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