Tag: Secretary of Defense

What I find interesting about this pick for Secretary of Defense is that I can still remember all the complaints about the militarization of the government when General Mattis was selected as Secretary of Defense. Will these same people be out there criticizing General Austin for the same reason?:

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired four-star Army general Lloyd J. Austin to be secretary of defense, according to four people familiar with the decision. If confirmed by the Senate, Austin would be the first Black leader of the Pentagon.

Biden selected Austin over the longtime front-runner candidate, Michele Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official and Biden supporter who would have been the first woman to serve as defense secretary. Biden also had considered Jeh Johnson, a former Pentagon general counsel and former secretary of homeland defense.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The U.S. military has a new Secretary of Defense:

Pat Shanahan confirmed Tuesday that he has resigned as acting defense secretary and ended his campaign to seek the job outright amid reports of domestic violence in his family involving himself, his ex-wife and their son.

Army Secretary Mark Esper was selected by President Donald Trump to be the new acting defense secretary, made public in a series of tweets that also announced Shanahan will step down.

“I know Mark, and have no doubt he will do a fantastic job!,” Trump tweeted.

Shanahan said in a prepared statement following Trump’s tweets that “after significant reflection” he was withdrawing from consideration for defense secretary and resigning from his post.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the domestic violence incident is pretty bad with Shanahan’s 17-year old son beating his mother with a baseball bat. Shanahan who was divorced at the time, rushed to hire a lawyer and defend his son for beating her because his ex-wife had a documented history of abuse. Not a good look for Shanahan.

Anyway with the Secretary of the Army taking over this would likely mean increased influence for the Army within the Department of Defense.

It looks like Ashton Carter will become the next Secretary of Defense if he passes the vetting process:

Ashton Carter, the former second-in-command at the Pentagon, appears to be the top choice to replace outgoing Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Barring any last minute complications, Ash Carter will be President Barack Obama’s choice as the new Secretary of Defense, several U.S. administration officials told CNN

An administration official had said that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, a former General Counsel at the Pentagon, was also still on the list of possibilities, but on Tuesday morning, sources said Johnson was no longer being considered. The prospect of an additional confirmation hearing for Johnson’s replacement if he were to move to the Pentagon as the Senate switches to Republican control would have been problematic for the White House. [CNN]

Carter is actually a very brilliant man when it comes to defense issues and well respected within the defense community which should allow him to be a fine Secretary of Defense.  With that said though even brilliant men like him can make eyebrow raising recommendations.  Long time ROK Heads may recall that Carter along with former Defense Secretary William Perry once recommended bombing North Korea back in 2006:

Fears have grown in recent weeks following reports of activity at a site in northeastern North Korea where U.S. officials say a Taepodong-2 missile — believed capable of reaching parts of the United States — is possibly being fueled.

An op-ed piece in Thursday’s Washington Post by William Perry, secretary of defense under former President Bill Clinton, and Ashton Carter, Clinton’s assistant secretary of defense, advocates a pre-emptive strike to destroy the missile.

“The United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched,” it said.

Cheney, however, told CNN that, while “I appreciate Bill’s advice,” such an action could worsen the situation.

I think the recommendation back then had a lot to do with politics because Perry and Carter likely understood former President Bush would not bomb North Korea.  However, it would be interesting during his confirmation hearing if someone in Congress would ask him if he still believes bombing North Korea is a good idea.

You can read more on this topic over at One Free Korea.

This is like musical Defense Secretaries the way the Pentagon keeps going through them:

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure from President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, senior administration officials said Monday, following a rocky tenure in which he has struggled to break through the White House’s insular foreign policy team.

Hagel is the first senior Obama adviser to leave the administration following the sweeping losses for Obama’s party in the midterm elections. It also comes as the president’s national security team has been battered by multiple foreign policy crises, including the rise of the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but I would be surprised if Michelle Flournoy is not nominated because she should be capable considering all her time at the Pentagon, is a strong Democrat supporter, and also brings political benefits. First of all she would be the first female Secretary of Defense and if the Republican controlled Congress does anything to try and block her nomination it can be played as the “War on Women” by the Democrats in anticipation of the 2016 elections.