No, the JSC did not "green light" anything. That is not their function nor their authority. They suggest; SecDef and POTUS green light.

This is but a minor issue of semantics, but "green light" is a perfectly adequate description for the approval of Operation Northwoods by the JCS...

Synonyms: permission, approval, assent, consent, authorization, sanction, leave, warranty, confirmation, blessing; inf. OK, okay, go-ahead, thumbs up.

(Source: The Oxford Pocket Theasurus of Current English; 2006)

I understand you may mean that the implementation of the plan needed the "green light" of the Sec. of Defense and President, which is accurate in that regard.

And many JSC suggestions are extremely far off the wall. Again, it's not their job to offer only the most plausible; the offer every idea that has a chance of success and let those in charge make the decision.

"Extremely far off the wall"? No argument from me on that description! (Yikes!)

It's part of the military brainstorming process, and they are very good at it.

Double yikes!!

As I alluded to earlier, calling these suggestions "brainstorming" is supremely ironic, although that is the proper term for a group tossing out a bunch of ideas and then selecting the "keepers".

I guess calling them "very good at it" is a matter of what one considers "good" in this context. It's somewhat akin to saying that Hitler was "very good" at being the leader of Germany - within a narrowly defined context - he brought a nation out of poverty and unemployment into great prosperity. Of course, he also ultimately led the nation into ruin, leading to its East-West division, while in-between he happily created a Hell on Earth. The JCS are (were) certainly "very good" at coming up with extremely radical and often very unlawful plans for the desired objective - to create the global illusion of a nation being the innocent victim of multiple acts of foreign aggression. But I wouldn't call these types of "brainstorming" suggestions "very good" work by the JCS, on several levels.