A strategic reason for a leader to resign is to de-escalate public tension. After a crisis, the leader can become a symbol of that difficult period. By stepping down, they absorb the negative sentiment, lower the political temperature, and allow their organization to move forward.

Military analyst Andrew Exum predicted that the war in Ukraine would become 'the best excuse the US army ever found to never say the words Iraq and Afghanistan again.' The institution is rapidly pivoting to large-scale combat operations, dismantling specialized units like the Asymmetric Warfare Group and discarding hard-won counterinsurgency knowledge.

Despite official ends to major conflicts, the high operational tempo established after 9/11 never stopped for active, reserve, or National Guard forces. This constant state of deployment for over two decades has had compounding negative effects on the military's readiness and personnel.

When an undeniably capable combat leader like Chris Donahue is removed for political reasons, it signals to all officers that competence is no longer the ultimate criteria for advancement. This erodes trust and discourages initiative down the chain of command.

A reform-minded leader can create ad-hoc teams and force collaboration between operators and technologists. However, these changes are often temporary. Once the leader departs, the military's established cultural norms and organizational structures, like powerful four-star commands, tend to reassert themselves, erasing the progress.

Twenty years of focusing on counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan caused the Army's core competencies for conventional warfare to degrade significantly. For example, short-range air defense (SHORAD) capabilities were so gutted that the Army had to rebuild the entire skill set from scratch, as there were no experienced NCOs left to train new soldiers.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation wasn't a quiet exit but a direct confrontation. He explicitly told President Trump that politically motivated firings by the Defense Secretary were degrading military readiness, using his departure as a last-resort alarm bell to bypass broken communication channels.

Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's tenure was hobbled by his lack of a DC network, preventing him from bringing in a trusted team. Arriving as 'just a guy with a briefcase,' his professional isolation led to weak leadership and a power vacuum now being filled by a more aggressive administration.

Unlike the ousted Navy Secretary Phelan, an outsider with few allies, Army Secretary Will Driscoll has secured his position by building a strong constituency. His alliance with the Vice President and support from his service and Capitol Hill make him politically protected and difficult to fire without creating a major party schism.