TRUMP WARNS CONGRESS: As President-elect Trump formally nominated his candidate for defense secretary last night at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he included a not-so-veiled warning to Congress to get going on that waiver that retired Marine Gen. James Mattis will need in order to take the job. “You’ll get that waiver, right?” Trump said after Mattis made a brief statement thanking the president-elect for his confidence, and expressing gratitude for the opportunity to serve. “I look forward to being the civilian leader, so long as the Congress gives me the waiver, and the Senate votes to consent,” Mattis said. When Trump took the microphone back he said. “If you didn’t get that waiver, there will be such a lot of angry people.”
House Republicans are on the case, introducing a stop-gap spending bill that would not only keep the government funded until April 28, but also includes language aimed at speeding up consideration of the Mattis waiver, Susan Ferrechio writes. But that waiver language threatens to complicate passage. Democrats pledged to oppose any bill that includes a waiver, arguing the issue of civilian control of the military should be fully debated and considered in its own bill. While the language in the bill would speed up the process, passage will require 60 votes. Senate Republicans will need to line up all of their GOP lawmakers and pick off six Democrats to pass the measure, which would likely be signed by President Obama because Congress has just one day before current funding runs out on Dec. 9.
“MAD DOG” IS HERE TO STAY: It’s looks like the “Mad Dog” nickname isn’t going anywhere as long as Trump keeps using it. Some Marines have said the moniker was not one they used to Mattis’s face (his call sign was “CHAOS,” which Defense One reported is an acronym for Colonel Has Another Outstanding Suggestion, earned when he was head of the 7th Marine Regiment). But Trump loves it. Each time he mentioned the legendary general he stressed the “Mad Dog,” waving his arms for emphasis. We’ll have to see it if ends up in his official bio.
POTUS ASSESSES HIS WAR ON TERRORISM: President Obama graded his performance over eight years of battling terrorism, and gave himself high marks. In what was billed as his final speech on counterterrorism, Obama gave himself, and in particular the U.S. military, credit for keeping America safe. “This is your work,” he told troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, home of U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command. “That’s the bottom line. No foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland. And it’s not because they didn’t try. Plots have been disrupted, terrorists have been taken off the battlefield.”
Obama also argued that terrorism, while troubling, does not threaten the survival of the United States and shouldn’t be treated as though it does, Sarah Westwood writes. “They don’t pose an existential threat to our nation, and we must not make the mistake of elevating them as if they do,” Obama said of the “lone wolf” attackers that have proliferated in the final few years of his presidency. “That does their job for them.”
The president also defended his decision to pull American troops out of Iraq in 2011, responding to repeated criticism by Trump that the move uncorked a new terrorist threat. Despite demanding in 2006 that then-President Bush pull American military forces out of Iraq, Trump has since called Obama the “founder of ISIS” for bringing those troops home. Obama repeated an argument he has made many times before: that he had no choice but to withdraw U.S forces, insisting that keeping troops in Iraq wouldn’t have prevented the Islamic State’s rise. “There’s been a debate about ISIL that’s focused on whether a continued U.S. troop presence in Iraq back in 2011 could have stopped the threat of ISIL from growing and, as a practical matter, this was not an option,” Obama said.
McCAIN’S DISSENTING VIEW: Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain had a much harsher view of Obama’s wartime performance. “President Obama’s speech was nothing more than a feeble attempt to evade the harsh judgment of history,” McCain said in a statement. “But to the American people, our emboldened enemies, and our dispirited allies, his legacy on counterterrorism is unmistakably clear: a disastrous withdrawal from Iraq, the terrorist rampage of ISIL, an indecisive approach to the war in Afghanistan that has empowered the Taliban, and an indifferent approach to the carnage in Syria on which our terrorist enemies have thrived. No rhetorical conceit will alter history’s verdict.”
Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Jacqueline Klimas (@jacqklimas) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll be sure to add you to our list.
Want to learn more about Daily on Defense? See our introductory video here.
McCAIN, THORNBERRY PILE ON: The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees blasted the Pentagon yesterday over a published report saying the Defense Department commissioned and then buried a study that revealed $125 billion in “administrative waste.” McCain and Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry issued a sharp rebuke after a Washington Post report that highlighted that the Pentagon has almost as many people working desk jobs as it does active duty troops and is spending almost a quarter of its $580 billion budget on overhead and administration. “The Defense Business Board’s key findings — that the Department of Defense could save as much as $125 billion over five years by eliminating unnecessary back-office bureaucracy — are not a surprise. Nor are the problems identified by the board new,” the statement read. “We have known for many years that the department’s business practices are archaic and wasteful, and its inability to pass a clean audit is a longstanding travesty. The reason these problems persist is simple: a failure of leadership and a lack of accountability,” the senators said.
THE PENTAGON PUSHES BACK, HARD: “Any suggestion the DBB report has been suppressed by the department is false,” Gordon Trowbridge, deputy Pentagon press secretary said in response to a query from the Examiner. “The DBB study has been publicly available on defense.gov since its release in January 2015, where it has been downloaded more than 2,800 times,” Trowbridge wrote in an email. “It received press coverage at the time of its release and the report was provided to Congress.” Trowbridge said the report was not ignored, and in fact some recommendations were implemented. “A review of the findings by the Deputy [Defense Secretary Robert Work] and other senior management leaders concluded that the report, while well-intentioned, had limited value because it lacked specific, actionable recommendations appropriate to the department and didn’t take into account many of DoD’s ongoing efficiency initiatives in the same areas.”
While it is “publicly available,” it’s not easy to find if you don’t know the exact title. If you go to the Defense Business Board’s website and look under reports, it’s not listed under “2015 Reports,” where the rest of the reports are and where one might naturally look. Here it is, by the way.
NO PARDON: A few Republican members of Congress are asking Obama to force Bowe Bergdahl to face his court-martial next year by not pardoning him before leaving office. “It has been seven years since Sgt. Bergdahl chose to abandon his fellow soldiers in Afghanistan during a time of war,” Rep. Vern Buchanan said in a statement. “He should be court-martialed and held accountable.” Rep. Mike Coffman echoed the remarks.
HAPPENING TODAY: Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who lost her re-election bid last month, will deliver her farewell address on the Senate floor at 10:45 a.m. The New Hampshire Republican has been a vocal critic of closing Guantanamo Bay and one of the key allies keeping the A-10 in service.
A procedural vote to move the NDAA forward in the Senate is also expected this afternoon, with final passage coming later this week.
DHS: Gabby Morrongiello had this scoop last night: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly are likely to be tapped for secretary and deputy secretary of homeland security, according to a top transition official familiar with the president-elect’s current thinking. But the source would not reveal which of the two men is favored for the top post and which is likely to be deputy secretary. Kelly retired from the Marine Corps this year.
TRUMP VS. BOEING: In one of those out-of-nowhere comments, Trump hopped on Twitter Tuesday morning, said the program to replace Air Force One was out of control, costs $4 billion and should be canceled. It’s not clear the planes will ultimately cost that much, but sometimes these things are hard to define. Boeing, which was blindsided by the president-elect’s bolt from the blue, issued a short statement. “We are currently under contract for $170 million to help determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the President of the United States. We look forward to working with the U.S. Air Force on subsequent phases of the program allowing us to deliver the best planes for the President at the best value for the American taxpayer.” Some wondered if Trump’s tweet tirade has something to do with quotes by Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg in the Chicago Tribune published just an hour before. One thing for sure, Trump showed once again he can set the cable TV news agenda for the day, with a single tweet first thing in the morning.
Here’s what Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James had to say: “Air Force One, although it is a 747 platform, is way, way more than what you would think of as a commercial airliner,” James told Politico. “It really is, in many ways, a flying White House, in terms of the security. There’s [electronic] countermeasures built in, communications, very high level communications, security of all types. After all, this is carrying the president of the United States. It has to go long distances, it has to survive under difficult circumstances, much more difficulty than a normal civilian airliner. So it is a bit more complicated than perhaps meets the eye.”
NO TWITTER WARS FOR DEFENSE FIRMS: Dave Melcher, president of the Aerospace Industries Association, said it’s unwise to take on Trump on Twitter over his criticism of the defense industry, and urged members not to overreact to things that could just be posts on social media. “What is tweeted today is not necessarily going to be the policy of tomorrow,” he said.
STATE BACKS UP TRUMP ON IRAN: Trump will have the power to break the Iran nuclear agreement, the State Department acknowledged, before hastening to argue against such a move, Joel Gehrke writes. “It’s not a formal treaty, and, of course, no one else can prevent any party to this agreement from walking away,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Tuesday. “The counterargument to that is, why would anyone walk away? Because it’s effective.”
KERRY BLAMES THE REBELS: With the fall of Aleppo now seeming imminent, and the Obama administration’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the Syrian civil war foundering, a downcast Secretary of State John Kerry, in Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, is now blaming the rebels for their dire straits, arguing they missed a chance years ago to get a peace deal and cease-fire. “Let me make it clear that at that point in time Russia and Iran both supported a cease-fire when we were in Vienna. But the opposition would not buy into a cease-fire; they didn’t want to have a cease-fire. And there was a refusal to embrace the cease-fire, despite many of us saying that’s the best way to get to the table and have a negotiation in order to resolve this politically.”
Kerry said that refusal to bargain ultimately led to where we are today. “People chose to fight. And from that day until today, there’s been a loss of territory and a loss of life way beyond what any of us wanted to see unfold.”
ALEPPO TALKS BACK ON: Nevertheless Kerry has resumed bilateral negotiations with Russia over the Syria, despite Russia’s refusal to make the policy changes that Kerry demanded when he canceled talks in October, Joel Gehrke writes. “Of course we’re having bilateral conversations with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov, with Russia rather,” Toner told reporters Tuesday. “We did start again reaching out to Russia because, let’s be honest, they’re an integral stakeholder.”
FLYNN’S FAKE NEWS PROBLEM: Incoming Trump administration officials need to make sure the news they promote on social media is legitimate and truthful, an Illinois congressman said Tuesday. Rep. Adam Kinzinger said on CNN that tweets from retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President-elect Trump’s incoming national security adviser, and his son Michael G. Flynn, are troublesome because they spread debunked conspiracy theories. The younger Flynn, who is his father’s chief of staff, in particular has promoted the “Pizzagate” story.
“When you get a government position — whether it’s a U.S. congressman, whether it’s national security adviser or anything — you now have a different level of commitment to the truth that you have to hold onto because people are going to take your words and take them literally,” Kinzinger said.
Rep. Adam Smith said he had concerns about Flynn’s judgment. “The National Security Adviser is responsible for filtering and assessing crucial information pertaining to the national defense. Someone who is so oblivious to the facts, or intentionally ignorant of them, should not be entrusted with policy decisions that affect the safety of the American people.”
Later, multiple news outlets reported that the younger Flynn was forced out of the transition team because of those conspiracy theories, Anna Giaritelli writes. The New York Times and CNN both reported Trump terminated Flynn in his role assisting his father, but CBS News said he resigned. All of the outlets cited unnamed sources. Over the weekend, Flynn questioned over Twitter whether a Washington, D.C., pizzeria had a Satanic pedophilia cult in its basement. “Until #Pizzagate proven to be false, it’ll remain a story. The left seems to forget #PodestaEmails and the many ‘coincidences’ tied to it,” he tweeted.
BEIJING ZING: Trump is taking criticism from an array of Chinese media outlets that dubbed him a “diplomatic rookie” and derided his criticism of China following his phone call with Taiwan’s leader, Joel Gehrke writes. “To stop acting like the diplomatic rookie he is, the next U.S. president needs help in adapting to his forthcoming role change,” China Daily wrote in a Tuesday editorial. “Otherwise, he will make costly troubles for his country, and find himself trying to bluster his way through constant diplomatic conflagrations.”
GO NAVY! GO ARMY! Trump will be attending the Army-Navy game this Saturday, Gabby Morrongiello writes. He’ll spend half the game cheering on the Army Black Knights and the other half in the opposing section with fans of the Navy Midshipmen, who have won 14 consecutive games in the series.
THE RUNDOWN
Defense One: Rand Paul Is Already Planning to Disrupt Trump’s Foreign Policy
Task and Purpose: Under SecDef Mattis, ‘Fighting Joe’ Dunford Could Keep His Job As Joint Chiefs Chair
Military.com: Iran President: Trump Won’t Be Able to Harm the Nuclear Deal
USNI News: Former Diplomats: Countering North Korean Missile, Nuke Programs to be Major Trump Challenges
Washington Post: Congress just gave Trump the authority to send surface-to-air missiles to Syrian fighters
Breaking Defense: Tern Tailsitter Drone: Pilot Not Included
UPI: U.S. Air Force approves Lockheed Martin’s SBIRS ground system
Daily Beast: Could Angelina Jolie Become Secretary-General of the UN?
Associated Press: Syria says it seized nearly 75 percent of eastern Aleppo
Marine Corps Times: Marine Corps issues service guidance for transgender troops
Military.com: Air Force Confirms No Women Now in SpecOps Training
Military Times: Sextortion: The U.S. military’s dirty little secret is a growing national security concern
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 7
8:30 a.m. 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The U.S. Naval Institute hosts its 2016 Defense Forum, including sessions with Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, Rep. Randy Forbes, and Rep. Ryan Zinke. usni.org
9:15 a.m. Livestream. The Council on Foreign Relations hosts three talks about how engaging women can help counter violent extremists. cfr.org
11 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Rep. Michael McCaul keynotes the Heritage Foundation’s annual state of homeland security address. heritage.org
2 p.m. Rayburn 2118. The House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee holds a hearing on the California National Guard bonus repayment issue. armedservices.house.gov
THURSDAY | DECEMBER 8
9 a.m. Rayburn 2118. Navy officials and experts testify about oversight of the littoral combat ship program. armedservices.house.gov
10 a.m. Dirksen 419. State Department officials testify about challenges facing the department and USAID under the next administration. foreign.senate.gov
10:30 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. A panel, including Army Secretary Eric Fanning, talks about the future of the all-volunteer force. brookings.edu
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. The Heritage Foundation hosts a panel discussion on how Trump’s administration should improve America’s nuclear weapons and missile defense policy. heritage.org
12 p.m. 1000 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The Cato Institute hosts an event looking at how to convince China to work with the U.S. to coerce North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons program. cato.org
FRIDAY | DECEMBER 9
7:30 a.m. 300 1st St. SE. Gen. Jay Raymond, the commander of Air Force Space Command, speaks at a breakfast event. mitchellaerospacepower.org
9 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Officials from the Army, Marine Corps and special operations communities talk about what requirements each service is looking for in future vertical lift capabilities. csis.org
12 p.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Rep. Ryan Zinke, a former Navy SEAL, discusses his new book, American Commander. heritage.org
MONDAY | DECEMBER 12
10 a.m. 25 Massachusetts Ave. NW. A panel talks about what the U.S. surveillance policy should be in 2017 and beyond. cnas.org
WEDNESDAY | DECEMBER 14
8:00 a.m. 1250 S. Hayes St., Arlington, Va. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft speaks at a Navy League breakfast event. navyleague.org
9:30 a.m. 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE. Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghanistan ambassador to the U.S., delivers the keynote at an event focused on American strategy in Afghanistan under President-elect Trump. heritage.org
