Ash Carter says he’d be an independent voice if he’s confirmed as the next secretary of defense – and he showed it at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.

President Barack Obama so far hasn’t armed Ukrainian government forces fighting Russian troops and separatists – but Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he could support that.


The president wants to pull nearly all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the time he leaves office in early 2017 – but Carter said if the situation there deteriorates, he’d advocate putting on the brakes.

And Obama wants to release as many Guantanamo Bay detainees as possible in hopes of closing the U.S. military prison there – but Carter said he would not be a rubber stamp for releasing those who could pose a danger to the United States.

Carter would be Obama’s fourth secretary of defense, and the president does not want a fifth, so that could give Carter leverage on these and other issues inside the administration during its last two years.

The question is whether Carter would be able to overcome the problem that has plagued Obama’s other defense secretaries — military policy being run out of the White House and its National Security Council, rather than the Pentagon, leaving the secretary of defense out of the loop.

In hour after hour of his confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Armed Services Committee, Carter made clear that although he “supports” the president on many key areas, he’s not afraid to stake out his own position separate from the White House.

The administration has not supplied Ukraine’s government with weapons to defend itself from Russian troops and separatists, but Carter said he’d “incline” toward doing so.

The president has pushed a narrative that U.S. combat in Afghanistan ended on Dec. 31, but Carter said the U.S. must “continue its campaign and finish the job there.” Obama wants the U.S. military to shrink to an embassy-only presence by the time he leaves office, but Carter said if the security situation in Afghanistan warrants it, he’d advise otherwise.

“I understand we have a plan; the president has a plan,” Carter said. “I support that plan. At the same time — it’s [only] a plan. If I’m concerned and I ascertain, as the years go by, we need to change that plan, I will recommend those changes to the president.”

Those responses were music to the ears of Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain of Arizona and other Republican critics, who argue that Obama has set the stage for another Iraq-style implosion in Afghanistan by pulling American troops out before indigenous troops can handle security on their own.

Republicans are skeptical, however, that Carter’s views will count for much given what they call Obama’s track record of “micromanagement.”

“I’m confident that he has no influence whatsoever, nor did his three predecessors,” McCain told reporters during a break in the hearing. “Because all of the decisions, we know, are made by three or four people and at the White House level, whether it be detainees or whether it be Ukraine or whether it be the Free Syrian Army, which all of the national security team leaders recommended and the president turned it down.”

Asked whether Carter’s relationships with National Security Adviser Susan Rice and other top White House officials could help him, McCain said, “It doesn’t matter.”

“It’s micromanagement from the White House,” he said.

Democrats, predictably, dismissed the notion.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) pointed out to reporters that the defense secretary works for the president — a fact he encouraged his Republican colleagues to accept.

“They have to understand — he’s going to be working for the White House and the president,” Manchin said during the break. “You’ve got to respect that. Just trying to beat him up is not my way of approaching these things.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Carter’s long track record in the Pentagon — first as the top acquisition executive and then as deputy defense secretary — meant he was not concerned about his ability to make his mark inside the administration.

“Anybody who knows Ash Carter well should not make that prediction,” Kaine said. “You saw the confidence he has, and you’re going to see a very strong vote for him. The reason he’s going to get a strong vote is people know that he will make a difference.”

But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) argued it doesn’t matter how strong a case Carter makes if the president isn’t interested.

“That depends on what the president will allow him to do,” Graham said. “The commander in chief is going to have to adjust his policies. Dr. Carter could help him do that if he’ll listen.”

On most major issues, however, Carter is in lockstep with Obama. He’s behind the strategy of fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from the air while trying to train Iraqi and Syrian forces to fight on the ground. He echoed calls by senators in both parties to reform the way the Pentagon buys weapons and equipment, explaining that he understood better than anyone the frustrations of dealing with the department’s legendary waste, delays and red tape.

But there was no clear resolution in sight to a few outstanding disputes both within the administration — and between it and Congress.

Nearly everyone in Washington — Republican and Democrat — agrees that the automatic, across-the-board budget restrictions set to resume next fiscal year with the return of sequestration pose a danger to military readiness.

Despite that consensus, however, the sides disagree on how to undo it. Many Republicans want to spare the Pentagon but cut other parts of the federal budget. Many Democrats want increased spending on both sides, along with some tax increases.

Carter did not take a side during his daylong confirmation hearing, but did renew his warning about sequestration and made clear that he’d push both inside and outside the administration for the Pentagon to have as much support as possible.

“If I’m secretary of defense, I would like to see more spending on defense,” he said. “I’m very open about that.”

The outgoing defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, clashed behind the scenes with the White House on the defense budget, Syria and Russia — disputes that led him to resign. With those large-scale problems unresolved, members of Congress and the defense establishment will be watching closely as Carter tries his hand at them.

In fact, McCain and Graham pounced on Carter when he toed the administration line on the strategy for Syria.

“How in the world are we going to dislodge ISIL from Syria without a ground component?” Graham asked. Military forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad will destroy the U.S.-backed “moderate” opposition that American troops plan to begin training in Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, he said — unless the U.S. commits to a larger intervention that defangs Assad’s air force and gives the “moderate” troops a fighting chance.

Carter said the situation is “complex” and that Washington believes Assad’s eventual removal from power “has got to be at the end of the road.”

McCain called Obama’s strategy for Syria “idiocy” and “nonsense.”

Republicans, though, appeared to like what they heard from Carter on the subject of releasing detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. One reason for the break between Obama and his departing defense secretary was what White House officials called slow-walking by Hagel on signing off on the release of those prisoners.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said she hopes Carter does not become a rubber stamp for releasing prisoners who could become dangerous to the U.S.

“I would ask you, Secretary Carter — or soon-to-be Secretary Carter — to make a commitment to this committee that you will not succumb to any pressure by this administration to increase the pace of transfer from Guantánamo.”

Carter said he agreed.

Ayotte also asked Carter to pledge that he would not allow the release of anyone he believed could once again become a terrorist threat to the U.S., as many as some 184 former prisoners may have.

“I understand my responsibility under that statute,” Carter said, “and as in everything else I do, I’ll play it absolutely straight.”