Joe Biden did not staff his White House press office for a war presidency. The president’s two press secretaries thus far, Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre, have not a dollop of military experience between them (though Psaki was State Department spokeswoman for two years during former President Barack Obama’s second term.)

So what does it say that John Kirby, a State Department and Pentagon spokesman during the late Obama and early Biden administrations, has recently been promoted to White House national security communications adviser?