{"id":41141,"date":"2020-12-18T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/12\/18\/what-gen-austin-should-be-asked-in-his-confirmation-hearing\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:22:21","slug":"what-gen-austin-should-be-asked-in-his-confirmation-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2020\/12\/18\/what-gen-austin-should-be-asked-in-his-confirmation-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"What Gen. Austin should be asked in his confirmation hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/transition\/2020\/12\/07\/report-biden-picks-lloyd-austin-retired-army-general-as-defense-secretary\/\" target=_blank>nomination of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin<\/a> to serve as his secretary of defense is generating a wave of instant analysis on the merits of the pick, with a notable focus on the ramifications of having yet another recently retired general in the Pentagon\u2019s top civilian job. Thus far, however, there has been very little discussion about how Austin views the world, how he would seek to reform the Pentagon and what his priorities would be. We should not be waiting for the confirmation hearings to begin asking these critical questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, how would Austin manage the largest organization in the federal government? Austin would be responsible for over 2.8 million employees \u2014 including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/Our-Story\/\" target=_blank>2.15 million service members<\/a> across all branches of the armed forces \u2014 and oversee a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/12\/02\/congress-advances-defense-bill-bucking-trumps-veto-threats\/\" target=_blank>$740 billion defense budget<\/a>, a sum that amounts to around half of the entire annual discretionary budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With this great power comes great responsibility, particularly in today\u2019s fiscal environment. The U.S. economy is set to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/en\/Countries\/USA\" target=_blank>contract by over 4 percent this year<\/a>. Washington is now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/us-policy\/2020\/10\/16\/2020-budget-deficit-coronavirus\/\" target=_blank>running a record $3 trillion deficit<\/a>. The coronavirus pandemic has forced the entire U.S. government to reevaluate what is truly important to the health, safety and security of the American people. Getting America\u2019s own house in order will be the first priority for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/transition\/\" target=_blank>the incoming Biden administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/transition\/2020\/12\/14\/who-could-be-lloyd-austins-deputy-defense-secretary\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/austin_biden.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Who could be Lloyd Austin\u2019s deputy defense secretary?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Sources say there are two top contenders for the No. 2 position at the Pentagon, but who would be the best fit with Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary nominee?<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Austin should be asked to explain how he sees his role given the country\u2019s present circumstances. How will he balance modernization with maintaining readiness? Which legacy weapons systems would he retire? Are there any overseas bases that no longer make sense strategically, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/opinion\/2020\/12\/10\/milley-is-right-the-us-should-reevaluate-its-military-commitments\/\" target=_blank>as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley suggested<\/a>? Given the predominance of the Asia-Pacific region in U.S. foreign policy going forward, should the U.S. Navy gain a larger share of the overall defense budget \u2014 and if so, which service will be downsized?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Any answer will garner its fair share of critics. But at a time when the nation\u2019s economic health is at its most dire since the Great Depression, the next secretary of defense <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensepriorities.org\/explainers\/restraint-a-post-covid-19-us-national-security-strategy\" target=_blank>can\u2019t avoid<\/a> making difficult but necessary choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Were he to be confirmed, Austin would be the 7th secretary of defense to inherit the war in Afghanistan. As a former commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-Afghanistan, he would also come into the job with direct experience managing it. Austin has provided optimistic assessments of the conflict in the past. In March 2015, <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/meetings\/AS\/AS00\/20150303\/103076\/HHRG-114-AS00-Wstate-AustinUSAL-20150303.pdf\" target=_blank>Austin testified<\/a> and outlined his optimism for Afghanistan\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly six years later, U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan at considerable risk as they back a government in Kabul as corrupt today as it was in 2015. While some may be tempted to ask Austin to provide a mea culpa over his past statements, time would be better served inquiring whether he has learned anything since his previous comments were made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does he recognize how costly the 20-year war has been to the U.S. military and to the U.S. taxpayer? Does he believe it is the U.S. military\u2019s responsibility to prop up the Afghan government in perpetuity \u2014 and if so, what in the last two decades leads him to believe doing more of the same will have a different result? Would he support a complete U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, as spelled out in the U.S.-Taliban agreement, or would he recommend hitting the pause button and waiting for some illusory outcome?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then there is the Middle East, Austin\u2019s wheelhouse. As commander of U.S. Central Command, Austin witnessed firsthand how unsolvable the region can be. The United States has spent billions of dollars over three decades creating large, permanent forward-operating bases throughout the Persian Gulf, in part to prevent a regional hegemon from using oil as a weapon. Yet those very same installations have had the unintended effect of dragging the United States into the region\u2019s various squabbles. A large U.S. footprint in the Middle East continues to provide states in the region, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with an opportunity to enlist Washington into its own power struggles. The result is often confusion about how limited U.S. interests in the region really are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Middle East of 2020 is not nearly as strategically vital to the U.S. as the Middle East of the 1970s, when Washington\u2019s core objective was to contain Soviet power. For all the investment, nation-building and deployments the U.S. has thrown into the Middle East over the last 20 years, it has received very little in return other than more problems. Would a Secretary Austin assist the Biden administration in breaking this vicious cycle? Does he believe stationing tens of thousands of U.S. troops in a part of the world whose <a href=\"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=ZQ\" target=_blank>collective gross domestic product<\/a> is smaller <a href=\"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=DE\" target=_blank>than Germany\u2019s<\/a> is a wise use of U.S. military power?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whoever is fortunate to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/12\/12\/race-matters-austin-advocates-tout-his-historic-candidacy-in-the-face-of-other-concerns\/\" target=_blank>hold the position of secretary of defense<\/a> will have immense power at his disposal. Substantive policy matters, not personality traits, should guide the discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a columnist at Newsweek.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How would Austin manage the largest organization in the federal government?&#8221; That&#8217;s just one of many questions this commentary recommends lawmakers ask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":83085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":66,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"8":{"categories":["leadership","management","home","daily-brief","newsletters"],"primary_category":"leadership"}}},"categories":[66,8,160,36,17,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2978],"class_list":["post-41141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-opinion","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"F3H43YPRTVH4FNA4EMLAZ24KTQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/12\/18\/what-gen-austin-should-be-asked-in-his-confirmation-hearing\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Gen. 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