Opinion: Bad Judgment and Biden Pentagon

President Biden has approved Mr. Kahl as undersecretary of defense for politics, one of the most important jobs that does not belong in the federal government cabinet. Although the Secretary of Defense is responsible for high-level defense policy and the Deputy Secretary manages the department on a day-to-day basis, the Under-Secretary exercises the strategy of establishing the lead role, including representing the department in the meetings of the deputies of the National Security Council.

Mr. Kahl’s strategic misjudgments have been pronounced. In 2015, as Biden’s national security adviser, Kahl defended the easing of sanctions on Iran, declaring that “they will not spend the vast majority of money on weapons, most will be spent on butter.” In the case, Tehran took advantage of the benefits to increase its funding for representatives in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Outside the government, Mr. Kahl relentlessly attacked the reorientation of Iran policy by the Trump Administration, tweeting in 2019 that the “hawks” in Congress “will not be satisfied until they get the war they have waged for decades.” Democrat Joe Manchin, the general vote of the armed services who opposed the deal with Iran and applauded President Trump’s withdrawal in 2018, might be interested to know if Kahl also believes he is a militant.

Kahl seems unable to see the strategic benefits to U.S. interests in containing Iran. He only sees apocalyptic risks. After the American strike that killed Iranian terrorist commander Qasem Soleimani, who had the blood of thousands of Americans in his hands, Kahl’s reaction on Twitter was that “Trump has started a war with Iran in Iraq “. The war never came.

When the United States decided to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, Mr. Kahl declared “Trump’s decision of Jerusalem further isolates the US” and warned of a “third Intifada” or Palestinian uprising. Still, the Embassy movement strengthened American ties with its closest ally in the Middle East. The Trump Administration’s broader rebalancing of the Middle East toward Israel and the Gulf states helped establish closer Arab-Israeli ties, culminating in the 2020 Abraham Accords.

Kahl described the agreements in his hearing as the “culmination of a set of trends, frankly, that have been in the region for about a decade.” However, he does not recognize how the American courtship of Iran can destabilize the region. He does not appear to have revised his thinking on the 2015 nuclear deal at all, although even some proponents of the deal acknowledge that the Trump administration’s sanctions on Iran dealt more blows than they thought. possible.

Last week, senators also pressured Mr. Kahl on the idea of ​​a “non-first use” nuclear policy, which would undermine the credibility of the U.S. deterrent and which Joe Biden approved when Mr. Kahl was his advisor. Kahl did not give a clear position in a written response to the committee, although at the hearing he said he opposed it. A 2017 tweet also seems to suggest skepticism about the U.S.-planned strategic ground-based deterrent missile system.

Democratic administrations rely more on diplomacy and soft power than Republican administrations, and that is clearly Biden’s preference. But with the State Department full of liberal internationalists and John Kerry as cabinet envoy at the cabinet level, it’s important that the Pentagon provides a counterpoint.

Mr Kahl’s nomination is in jeopardy by bombastic tweets as his claim that “all Republican senators” who supported arms sales to Saudi Arabia “share ownership of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” But there are solid political reasons for the Senate to exercise its advice and allow its consent to demand a tougher strategic thinker for this crucial position of national security.