Joe Biden made another pick for his administration and it is reportedly retired General Lloyd Austin to be his secretary of defense. If confirmed, Austin would become the first African American to head the Pentagon. Austin is the former chief of U.S. Central Command, where he oversaw U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. After retiring in 2016, he joined the board of Raytheon and became a partner in Pine Island Capital Partners, a venture capital fund focused on military-related companies. Austin will need a legal waiver from Congress to take the position due to laws designed to preserve the civilian control of the military.
This cabinet pick for Biden has posed unintended controversy due to the American people’s concern to assign someone a role which poses a great risk for conflict of interest in occurring. Asserting that he is inclined to want to incentivize more war, and how he is on the payroll from a company that makes money from war. Even going as far as to stating that this is a prime example of how Washington D.C. doesn’t even realize how corrupt this sort of behavior has been normalized. The silver lining to this story is how the selection of Austin is being seen as a victory for anti war groups who had fought against the possible selection of Michèle Flournoy as defense secretary due to her past support of wars in Iraq, Libya and other countries.
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