General Wayne Downing most recently served in the White House as National Director and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism. As the President's principal advisor on matters related to combating terrorism, he was responsible for the close coordination among the military, diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, information, and financial operations of our war on terror, and for developing and executing a strategy that integrated all elements of national power.
Excellent post! I worked for General Downing and he would be the very best choice if they could pursuade him to return to Washington, which ain't gonna happen. He's enjoying his time fly fishing in Colorado. He's a very mission-oriented guy with little patience for Washington B.S., but Condy Rice doesn't like him. He regularly blew off NSC meetings that didn't directly relate to his responsibilities to "combat terrorism" - go figure - and we know Washington is all about meetings. His standard reply was, "I've got a war to fight". We can't actually have warriors fighting wars, now can we? Oh, he was replaced by Gen. John Gordon (USAF - retired), a former Air Force PHYSICIST and former NSC staffer with Condy in his earlier days; there was a man who knew how to fight a war! (In case you're a DU-er slinking around on the site, that last was SARCASM.)