The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age

by David E. Sanger

But Cartwright’s direct line to Obama had grated on Robert Gates, the secretary of defense, and Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. On a variety of issues they believed he manipulated the Pentagon system, or went around the chain of command. It didn’t help that Cartwright had not spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Mullen was ready to retire, the two successfully argued against promoting Cartwright into Mullen’s role. Suddenly, the man who was among the first to sketch out how the United States could create a dedicated military command to deal with a new dimension of warfare was cast out. With him, I discovered later, went some of the most creative strategic thinking about the use of cyber in offense and defense.