AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE:
Secretary of Defense Jim Webb?
The Democrat and scourge of foreign wars is drawing praise from many Trump supporters.
Additional headlines & comments below.
UPDATE 1:
- ATLANTIC: Will James Webb Be the Next Secretary of Defense?
- POLITICO: Jim Webb emerges as candidate for Defense secretary
- THE HILL: White House considering Jim Webb as Mattis replacement: report
- SPUTNICK: Trump Mulls Nominating ‘China Hawk' James Webb as Pentagon Chief – Reports
OLDER RELATED:
- 2008 TAKIMAG: What the Hell Happened to Jim?”James Webb Talks Like Pat Buchanan, Votes Like Harry Reid
ROBERT STEELE: James Fallows (The Atlantic) is one of the best of the best when it comes to balanced critical commentary. He is under-estimating President Trump's wisdom and Webb's devotion to service — Webb is a Marine through and through, committed to the Constitution and the Republic, with Reagan-era credentials. Webb failed as an Independent candidate because his campaign manager was a pastor and former subordinate (not a skilled political campaign manager) blowing off everyone trying to show Webb how to thread the needle between the two wings of the two-party tyranny, for example, by making electoral reform, a coalition cabinet, and a balanced budget part of his core platform thus differentiating himself from the conventional candidates. In retrospect we are of course delighted that President Trump won and now Webb would be most helpful to the President in building the President's base from 27% to 70%. Webb could achieve huge savings in defense by cutting waste and ending elective foreign wars as the President might direct…those savings will help fund domestic defense and infrastructure needs (the inter-state highway system was justified as a defense program by President Ike Eisenhower).
See Also:
UPDATE 2:
ATLANTIC: The Trump-Centric Case for Jim Webb as Defense Secretary
Here are three points [about how the choice of Webb] could help the Republic:
1 It is insane for the President to continue with an Acting SecDef that is a direct representative of the military-industrial complex with no substantive military experience.
2 Webb is confirmable and confirmable quickly.
3 Because Webb is in harmony with the President's views and capable of drawing down expensive forces, reducing support to dictators, and eliminating some of the 50% waste that characterizes every aspect of DoD, he will free up resources for the President's domestic priorities including the wall and infrastructure.
- NEWSY: Trump Reportedly Considering Jim Webb As Next Defense Secretary
- PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Webb for defense secretary
- THE WEEK: Jim Webb for defense secretary
- HEAVY.COM: Hong Le Webb, Jim Webb’s Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
ROBERT STEELE: Hong Le Webb is of Vietnamese origin, not Chinese as too many assume, fleeing Viet-Nam after we gave up — literally on a fishing boat rescued by the US Navy offshore. Note: the Vietnamese hate the Chinese with a passion, something most US folk do not know. She earned a full scholarship for her undergraduate at the University of Michigan, focusing on Asian studies and becoming fluent in Chinese. At Cornell where she earned her law degree she was editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. As an attorney and partner for a Tier 1 law firm in DC she specializes in complex business law and assists US clients with Asian interests. In my humble opinion, I think she would be an asset were James Webb to be selected by our President to strengthen the US military with some very tough love backed up by serious intelligence that is not available today from the Defense Intelligence Agency — intelligence that would justify a 450-ship Navy, a tracked Army, a long-haul Air Force, and the closure of all US bases overseas — we need to focus on defense of the homeland, not serving as the “enforcers” for the banks that General Smedley Butler, USMC denounced in his book, War is a Racket.
See Also:
2014 Robert Steele On Defense Intelligence – Seven Strikes
UPDATE 3:
- Duff, Gordon based on interview, “Secretary of Efficient Defense or Secretary of Wasteful War? Robert David Steele as a Candidate – the Only Candidate with a Grand Strategy,” Veterans Today, 21 December 2018
- Steele, Robert with Rob Kall, “What Would an Open Source Secretary of Defense Look Like?,” OpEdNews, 25 December 2018. PBI BackUp
- Duff, Gordon inclusive of interview, “A Commentary: Robert David Steele for Secretary of Defense?,” Veterans Today, 31 December 2018. PBI BackUp
ROBERT STEELE: I confess! These articles exist. Gordon Duff decided to throw a grenade (he hates Donald Trump but I am bringing him around), then Rob Kall who knows me as the pope for open source everything jumped in, and then Gordon decided to throw another haymaker. I doubt I could survive all the snakes that a Secretary of Defense must deal with from day to day. My strength is in championing holistic analytics, true cost economics, and Open Source Everything Engineering (OSEE). What matters about all three of these articles is that I have spent more time than anyone else thinking about defense and intelligence reform in practical cost-saving terms. I know how to do the 96% of the decision-support the President and Cabinet and others need that the US secret intelligence community refuses to do (and does not know how to do). My focus is on the truth at any cost lowering all other costs. Onward.
See Also:
UPDATE 4:
VOX: Patrick Shanahan, acting defense secretary, may get the job permanently
Phi Beta Iota: This may be disinformation. Our President is smart enough to know that putting a military-industrial apparatchik in charge of defense — a person without substantive military experience and without substantive political experience — is political and financial suicide. We hope for the best.
See Also:
Wikipedia / Patrick M. Shanahan
UPDATE 5:
A “hit job” on James Webb by Foreign Affairs, a photo essay by Business Insider, NYT downplays (and confirms VP Pence as intermediary), and an endorsement from two top Zionists and warmongers in US Government circles who may be hedging their bets.
- FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Why Jim Webb Might Be Trump’s Ideal Secretary of Defense
- BUSINESS INSIDER: The life and career of Jim Webb, a Vietnam hero who could be Trump's next secretary of defense
- NYT: White House Mulls Jim Webb, Ex-Democratic Senator, as Next Defense Secretary
- HAARETZ: Jewish Insider's Daily Kickoff: January 4, 2019
Dov Zakheim, who served with Webb in the Reagan administration, said during a phone interview with Jewish Insider this week that Webb “wouldn’t be a bad choice at all.” According to the former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Planning and Resources, Webb is “a serious, tense guy who stands for what he believes in. This is a man of integrity, who has strongly-held opinions. He would be very capable to serve in this position.” But Zakheim cautioned that while Webb would be closer to President Trump than Mattis, “the thing that I would ask about him is simply, how well would he do with a president who changes his mind so often?” [JewishInsider]
Elliott Abrams emails us: Webb “fits perfectly into Walter Russell Mead’s description of ‘Jacksonian’ Americans and their foreign policy views. He opposes most foreign military involvement, hates our enemies, and thinks that if we have to fight, we have to fight to win.”
UPDATE 6:
THE HILL: Trump says Jim Webb is not under consideration for Defense secretary
Phi Beta Iota: Also James Webb is also championed by Laura Ingram of Fox, the involvement of Mike Pence could be the kiss of death for this candidate.
UPDATE 7:
TASK & PURPOSE: Jim Webb As Trump’s Defense Secretary Would Be A Nightmare For Both
ROANOKE TIMES: CASEY: Don't bet Jim Webb will be Secretary of Defense
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Trump's base would love to have Jim Webb as defense secretary
UPDATE 8:
The Acting Secretary of Defense is slow-rolling the President on the wall. The very limited focus on the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) tells us two things: first, that the Services are not at all interested in supporting the President's legitimate focus on defending our border; and second, that Shanahan either does not know enough or does not care enough to show the President how the full power of the US military can be brought to bear immediately.
“It Is Shanahan’s to Lose”: Inside the Battle to Succeed James Mattis
Robert Steele: How Our Military Can Help Defend the Border
