The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century

As the Commander of U.S. Central Command, General Frank McKenzie oversaw some of the most important — and controversial operations in modern U.S. military history. He had direct operational responsibility for the strikes on Qassem Soleimani and two successive leaders of ISIS, the many months of deterrence operations against Iran and its proxies, and the methodical drawdown in Iraq. He directed the noncombatant evacuation operation in Afghanistan, and our final withdrawal from that tortured country.
The Melting Point has three themes. The first one is the importance of the primacy of civilian control of the military. It has become a widely perceived truth that this control has been eroded over the past few years. General McKenzie doesn't believe that to be the case, and he speaks with some authority on the matter arguing that the civ-mil relationship isn't perfect or frictionless, but it doesn't have to be, and probably shouldn't be. It is, however, more...