Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin might have a tough road ahead of him at the Pentagon.
Not only must he contend with an array of security threats from within and outside the country, but as the first Black defense chief of the Pentagon, he will be expected to root out racism and extremism within the agency’s ranks. The deadly takeover of the U.S. Capitol included retired and current military members among the rioters who were espousing far-right and racist conspiracies.
As the retired four-star Army general told senators, the focus of the Pentagon is to “keep America safe from our enemies. But we can’t do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks.”
Based on 2018 data, about two-thirds of the enlisted military is white and about 17 percent is Black. The Black percentage decreases as rank increases, The Military Times reported.
Austin, who was confirmed in a 93-2 vote, also has to contend with his own ties to the weapons industry and the military-industrial complex.
Now 67, Austin helped lead the invasion into Iraq in 2003, and eight years later was the top U.S. commander there, overseeing U.S. troop withdrawal, The Military Times reported.
When he retired, he went on to serve on the board of Raytheon, one of the world’s largest weapons makers. He was also a partner in an investment firm that buys military suppliers. His ties to the military-industrial complex are strong.
Raytheon makes fighter jet engines, weapons, high-tech sensors and dozens of other military products and has sold “billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and radar systems to allies in the Middle East, some of which were used to fight a war in Yemen,” The New York Times reported.
His confirmation got some criticism on Twitter due to his weapons industry ties.
“There is no scarier partnership than that between (1) a company that needs to keep creating weapons of war to keep creating profit and (2) a government that creates the demand for those weapons of war through creating wars. Just a terrifying incentive for systematic murder,” tweeted Nathan J. Robinson, editor-in-chief of Current Affairs magazine.
Robinson added, “There is nothing more sociopathic and evil than a for-profit weapons company because its financial incentives are directly towards encouraging mass death and destruction.’
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During his Senate confirmation hearing, Austin said he would recuse himself from military decisions involving Raytheon.
“I can pledge to you that I’ll be mindful not only of the legal requirements that govern my conduct but also of the appearances to ensure that the public has no reason to question my impartiality,” said Austin. “And I’ll consult with the DoD [Department of Defense] career ethics officials on these issues and will require everyone that serves with me to ensure that public service is and will remain a public trust.”
That did not satisfy some critics. “A large swath of indirect influence still flows from Raytheon’s legitimacy being predicated on military action and spending. Cycles of dependency can continue to be perpetuated without any scent of direct conflict of interest,” one person tweeted.
