After the Vietnam War, the U.S. military undertook an historic reorganization of how it recruited, trained and deployed the vast numbers of individuals serving in the armed forces. That reorganization is a famous success story. Generals Mattis, Kelly, Flynn and Gen. David Petraeus (mooted for Secretary of State) are products of this military structure.

The U.S. needs more of these management skills, especially as executives from private business find it harder to maneuver around conflict-of-interest rules. Generals Mattis, Kelly and Flynn have spent careers navigating large public bureaucracies, and succeeding in spite of them.

As a commander in Iraq and then head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Mattis has seen the Pentagon work, or not, at both ends of its huge funnel. If this time next year Gen. Kelly, who ran the Southern Command, reports that the Homeland Security Department should be broken up, we will give him the benefit of experienced doubt. Gen. Flynn has a particular challenge in serving as a strategic coordinator, but he rose through the intelligence bureaucracies and knows where the trap doors are.