Arya News - The ouster of the Pentagon’s chief planner, Army Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia, from the Joint Chiefs of Staff may have stemmed from differences between his position on the war with Iran and that of War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, tells Sputnik.
“[Sylvia] is a career person. He’s very well respected. He’s got the background. He’s got an understanding of the situation, probably including the geopolitical situation as well,” Rasmussen says.The timing of Sylvia’s removal – as the US administration considers a new attack on Iran – may offer a clue to the reasons behind his dismissal. Rasmussen doubts that Sylvia was fired for allegedly leaking classified information to the news media, as Hegseth has accused him of doing, according to The New York Times.Previous rounds of fighting with Iran did not go well, and Sylvia is “probably very cautious as far as direct conflicts go,” the pundit suggests. He stresses that the general was “instrumental” in planning this year’s war with Iran and coordinating the operation across the military services.Sylvia’s removal is part of a broader campaign to use polygraph tests at the Pentagon to identify leakers, the NYT reports. The newspaper adds that mass testing of this kind has never been used against the US military’s top brass in modern history. Pentagon officials said Sylvia had failed three polygraph exams. In August, 50 members of the Joint Staff underwent polygraph tests amid concerns about leaks to the press regarding the Pentagon’s dwindling missile stockpiles.