Opinion: Bad Judgment and Biden’s Pentagon

President Biden has addressed Mr. Kahl as undersecretary of defense for policy, one of the most important non-cabinet positions in the federal government. While the Secretary of Defense deals with high-level defense policy and the Assistant Secretary manages the day-to-day running of the department, the Undersecretary plays the lead strategy in determining the role – including representing the department at the National Delegates’ meetings. Security Council.

Mr. Kahl’s strategic misjudgments in the Middle East have been expressed. In 2015, Mr Kahl, as Mr Biden’s national security adviser, advocated for sanctions relief against Iran, stating that “the vast majority of the money will not be spent on weapons, but most will go to butter.” In that case, Tehran took advantage of the windfall to increase its funding for proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Outside of the administration, Mr. Kahl relentlessly attacked the Trump administration’s reorientation of Iran’s policies, tweeting in 2019 that ‘hawks’ in Congress’ won’t be satisfied until they get the war they’ve fought for decades ‘. Democrat Joe Manchin, the mixed mood on the armed forces who opposed the deal with Iran and welcomed President Trump’s 2018 withdrawal, may be interested in whether Mr Kahl thinks he is also a war stoker.

Mr. Kahl does not seem to see the strategic benefits to US interests in controlling Iran. He only sees apocalyptic risks. After the US attack that killed Iranian terror commander Qasem Soleimani, who had the blood of thousands of Americans on his hands, Mr. Kahl on Twitter that “Trump has started war with Iran in Iraq.” War never came.

When the US decided to move their embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Mr. Kahl that “Trump’s decision in Jerusalem further isolates the US” and warned of a “third Intifada” or Palestinian uprising. But the embassy’s move strengthened America’s ties with its closest ally in the Middle East. The wider Middle East of the Trump administration restored balance towards Israel, and the Gulf states helped forge closer Arab-Israeli ties, culminating in the 2020 Abraham Accords.

Mr Kahl described the accords in his hearing as “the culmination of a series of trends, frankly, that have been present in the region for about a decade”. Still, he does not recognize how Iran’s courtship by the US could destabilize the region. He doesn’t seem to have rethought his thinking about the 2015 nuclear deal at all, though even some proponents of the deal recognize that the Trump administration’s sanctions against Iran have more force than they thought possible.

Senators also urged Mr. Kahl suggested the idea of ​​a non-first-use nuclear policy that would damage the credibility of the US deterrent, and which Joe Biden endorsed when Mr. Kahl was his advisor. Mr. Kahl did not give a clear position in a written reply to the committee, although he said at the hearing that he was against it. A 2017 tweet also seems to indicate skepticism about America’s planned Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent missile system.

Democratic governments rely more on diplomacy and soft power than Republican governments, and that’s clearly Team Biden’s preference. But now that the State Department is full of liberal internationalists and John Kerry as cabinet-level climate envoy, it’s important for the Pentagon to offer a counter-perspective.

Mr. Kahl’s appointment is in danger of bombastic tweets such as his claim that “every Republican senator” who backed arms sales to Saudi Arabia “owns the worst humanitarian crisis in the world”. But there are good policy grounds for the Senate to exercise its advisory and assent power to demand a more stubborn strategic thinker for this crucial national security post.