Biden’s strong pick for chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Tom Rogan
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President Joe Biden has made a strong choice in nominating Gen. Charles Brown to replace Gen. Mark Milley as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Brown is a respected Air Force officer with two credentials in particular favor of his taking on this role.
An F-16 pilot and instructor (he taught at the Air Force’s Top Gun equivalent school) by trade, Brown is well-regarded inside the military and intelligence community as a smart and skilled leader. Competent leadership is always important in the military, but it’s especially crucial at this moment for two reasons.
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First, in the face of an increasingly divisive United States political scene, the military needs leaders who remain absolutely independent of partisan politics and focused solely on their Constitutional obligations.
While Gen. Milley has faced a difficult task in the partisan showmanship of President Trump and the partisan pageantry of President Biden, Milley’s extensive efforts to shape favorable media portrayals of himself have undermined his credibility. Brown must avoid Milley’s mistake in that regard, focusing simply on those under his command and the mission of national defense.
That leads to the second factor necessitating strong leadership at this moment, which is the threatening environment facing the United States and its interests around the world.
China stands apart here. A rising plurality of U.S. military and civilian intelligence analysts believe Xi Jinping is likely to order an invasion of Taiwan before 2030. Although the White House later backtracked each time, Biden has said four times that he would order the U.S. military to intervene on Taiwan’s behalf in the event of such an invasion.
That matters because a war over Taiwan would be extraordinarily bloody and difficult. A war of a kind unseen by the American people since the Second World War. A U.S.-Taiwan defeat would absolutely be possible. I have been told by numerous sources that Brown gets this reality.
Of additional benefit, then, is Brown’s recent tenure as the 2018-2020 Commander of U.S. Air Forces in the Pacific. In that Hawaii-based role, Brown wouldn’t simply have gained intimate familiarity with the Air Force’s planning for a possible war over Taiwan. The four-star general would also have gained first-hand insight into, and war game experience with, the other service branches planning for that war.
This level of in-depth professional experience over a period of two years stands Brown in strong stead to manage the military’s broader preparation for war. It also gives Brown a natural expertise with which to better advise Biden.
In much the same way, Brown’s three years as a senior officer in Central Command, with one year as that Command’s deputy commanding general, will have given him insight into Iran-focused strategic planning. This bears added relevance as tensions over Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities and construction of covert facilities grow. Brown is also likely to have good personal relations with Sunni Arab leaders and officials, something that might help him repair the damage done to the U.S.-Saudi alliance in recent years.
Top line: this is a good pick. Only the more revolutionary-minded strategist, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger, may have been a better choice for Chairman.