After the Korean war, US generals lost so much influence after Macarthur. Power has gone from generals to, SecDef McNamara, and then to State department, like Kissinger, and national security advisors. From Robert Gates. "Duty memoirs". Libya was decided by Clinton and national security advisor rice. Sec def and pentagon has lost a lot of power over 60 years. Generals are just propaganda outfits now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...6915b2-77cb-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html
It got so bad during internal debates over whether to intervene in Libya in 2011 that Gates says he felt compelled to deliver a “rant” because the White House staff was “talking about military options with the president without Defense being involved.”