Biden to tab 4-star general Austin for Secretary of Defense

Don't really know where you herad that, Goldwater Nick act dosn't alow the JCS to have command authority.

 

The jobs requires a civilian at least 7 years removed from service and Austin retired in ‘16. He’ll need a waiver from Congress.

 

You should know a lot about him, he led the Obama "ISIS is just a JV team" and led the billion dollar effort to train over 5000 terrorism fighters and had to admit to Congress he only managed "4 or 5".

"Only four or five U.S-trained Syrian fighters remain on the battlefield against militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East acknowledged Wednesday in the face of withering criticism from senators who dismissed the training program as a "total failure" and demanded a change of strategy."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-program-isis-fighters-syria-general-lloyd-austin-congress/





And let's not forget it was the Dems who decried appointing the military to be in charge of the DoD instead of civilian control.

This is once again trying to get another "FIRST".

 

Mattis worked for General Dynamics...a defense contractor

 

So it was only ok when it was a white guy?

 

I tend to agree with that stance as well, which was the original intent of the position....

However, since this guy is retired (as was Mattis), he is a civilian..

 

They're all civilians(active or not.). That's like saying we wouldn't have wanted George Washington to lead us to victory in Trenton(as both the commander of the army and as our President.). So long as Habeus Corpus remains in place, whether the military has direct leadership over itself(preferred), or a civilian leading over it, it doesn't matter.

 

So it's OK because it's a black guy?

 

And will require a waiver as he has not been retired for the necessary 6 years. Need I remind you how Democrats opposed Mathis and many did not vote for the waiver or confirmation? But that is a minor point considering his being wrong and incompetent just about as much as Biden and Kerry when it comes to foreign policy and the military.

 

Not too ****ing many for the confirmation.... nice try though.....



I believe the waiver was 17 No's

Austin now the formal nominee... just announced...

Seems he's just as qualified as Mattis is/was... I would expect a similar vote on both waiver and confirmation..

 

When did I oppose Mattis?

 

Results are meaningless. Race and gender is everything.

 

So he made @ 375K a year.... after many many years making nada in service of the US Government.....

I'd be dying to know your point if I couldn't care less....

 

Of course, oh and being "a voice". The woman he nominated for HUD is not because she has accomplished anything but because she has long been "a voice", and black. And then he hire Xavier Bacheria, as he pronounced it today, for Health and Education Services, as he called it. So Biden's been in these deep discussions as to who he would appoint and says he has worked with the person for years and he doesn't know or hasn't learned how to pronounce his name? Amazing.

 

As a General, I assure you my son the Major USMC is not oppressed.

 

Didn't say you did I said the Dems did.

 

No, I hate the pentagon's universal incompetence. Black, white, asian, etc. We need a serious overhaul not only in the Pentagon but in the Academy. There's something seriously wrong with how our strategists are approaching warfare. We're lucky that nukes changed the game and made us untouchable. If war were still conventional, our inability to win strategically would've gotten our asses kicked all over the place.

 

As a General, I assure you my Major USMC is not oppressed.

Yes including Blumenthal. And no he is not as qualified, one succeeded one failed and the one that succeeded had to clean up for those failures.

 

Did you?

 

Apparently 36 Democrats thought so when they approved the waiver for former Gen. Mattis. Their is a reason why former military personnel need to wait 7 years after they left the military.

"Having a recently retired general officer as secretary of defense poses all kinds of practical problems," Eliot Cohen, professor of strategic studies at John Hopkins University, told senators on Tuesday. "Would they bypass the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the senior military adviser to the president? Would they allow normal rivalries or close friendships of their military career to affect their position?
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/...is-need-a-waiver-to-become-defense-secretary/

"Even the appearance of such biases, let alone the reality, would make effective leadership of the Department of Defense difficult or impossible."

Almost all of the lawmaker objections to Mattis' nomination thus far have focused on those issues and whether giving a waiver in his case opens the door for an erosion of civilian control of the military in the future.

 

Here's another fun rumor for ya...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-reportedly-considering-nominating-pete-125511068.html

Mayor Pete didn't get ambassador to UN, and he wants to build up some foreign policy background for his eventual POTUS nomination...

What am I missing here?

 

Another piss poor choice. The dude was just recently MAYOR, and he's going to be our top Chinese diplomat? Is it only conservatives who hate that Biden's administration thus far, is a downgrade across the entire board. There's either little experience, no experience but hey plenty of diversity.

 

Other than Mayor Pete, I'd put any single Biden appointment up vs any single current Trump Acting appointment...

Any

Single

One

BTW, don't look it up, but who is the current US ambassador to China?

 

Since I can't look it up, I don't even know(see: I'm fair and honest). But I will bet that he or she has more foreign policy expertise than a former MAYOR. Look, this isn't against Buttigieg as a human being. Great guy and I probably would've voted for him for President(despite said foreign policy concerns. As the Presidency is more about being an executive head and his mayoral experience does help a tad with that.)

But China is our #1 adversary, and their foreign intrusion in the US is substantially greater than the Russians as revealed by Ratcliff. Back when the stupid conspiracy theory was actually being acted on by our top people(again, remember, these were "our best"), I said a game changer would be if there was Russian intrusion on the domestic homeland(and the only sign of that was Butima, the college age Russian girl who was sent back to her country after her use as a prop for the scandal of a century was over.)

Here, we have actual infiltration. Their reach far exceeded Putin's by miles.

 

That he is totally unqualified for the job. Being mayor of South Bend does not quality one with dealing with our most important foreign advisory. It's not about his learning on the job. Make him ambassador to Ecuador if Biden insist on getting him off unemployment.