administration and george w. bush and especially under barack obama s administration, the n sflt c staff nsc staff is to largeu unwieldy, undemocratic. whether he can do something about that, it s a question to be resolved. do you know anything about his ability to pick his own people? i have heard general mcmaster is going to have as free a hand as you can. i don t know always someone frameing a staff, setting his mandate. his predecessor, general flynn, wanted to reduce the size of the staff, make it less operational. there s a phrase general mcmaster will remember from iraq and afghanistan, the 5,000 mile screwdriver which means nsa staff is trying to do tiny little management things from a