I understand your desire that the world works with some ultimate leader but this is not how it works. In the end the President makes a decision based on recommendations/advice from the government agency. Symbolically they are responsible but obviously the Presidential team is not designing missions.

Why would someone at the Pentagon be fired? They got unlucky and made some mistakes, learn from them and get better. Why would you fire them? Last I checked the Pentagon is not fully in control over reality.