When I served in the first Bush Administration, I had something called my "sugar packet goals." Those were three goals that I had written on the back of a sugar packet that were entirely confidential. Not even my closest aides and deputies knew them. Indeed, they were part of a long list of goals that had been approved by the Secretary and were integrated into the White House budgets. Yet, given the politics above, around and below, it served me over time to focus on what was most important; keep it short and simple and be discreet about it.
If we sat on the National Security Council today, what would be our “sugar packet goals?” What are the most important issues facing the members - the President, Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affair and their chief advisors, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence?
This Thursday evening on The Solari Report I will be speaking with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Adjunct Harriman Professor of Government at William & Mary College.
Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff from 2002-05, Associate Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff and member of that staff responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political-military and legislative affairs from 2001-02.
More at the blog.
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