READY TO SALUTE: Having promised to play no role in resolving a disputed election, the nation’s avowedly apolitical military leaders are awaiting the verdict of the people in an election that will determine what orders they will be executing over the next four years.
“Of all the countries in the world, I think that we are the only one, or at least one of the very few, that swears an oath of allegiance to an idea that’s embedded in a document called the U.S. Constitution,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told NPR last month. “We don’t swear an oath of allegiance to an individual, a king, a queen, a president, or anything else. We don’t swear an oath of allegiance to a country, for that matter. We don’t swear an oath of allegiance to a flag, a tribe, a religion, or any of that. We swear an oath to an idea or a set of ideas and values that are embedded in our Constitution.”
Whoever is elected commander in chief today, the military’s role is to salute smartly and carry out his orders.
BRACED FOR PROTESTS: In Washington, D.C., last night, the city streets echoed with the sound of hammering and the buzzing of power tools as plywood was installed over the windows of businesses and a fence advertised as “unscalable” was erected around the White House grounds in anticipation of post-election violence.
Many Washingtonians and new reporters posted pictures of the boarded-up buildings on Twitter, and the city’s mayor is deploying the entire D.C. police force, backed up by 250 National Guard troops, if needed, to keep the peace. “Some people would like to cause mayhem and trouble,” Mayor Muriel Bowser was quoted by the Associated Press. “That all saddens me.”
“We have to be ready,” said Ali Khan, 66, who works at a now-barricaded downtown Washington liquor store where thousands of dollars in merchandise was stolen in June protests. “They smashed the windows and just walked out with everything,” reported the Associated Press, which said the city is bracing for another long-term occupation of Black Lives Matter Plaza one block from the White House, especially if President Trump wins
“We are concerned about attacks on federal facilities,” a DHS spokesman who spoke on background told the Washington Examiner’s Homeland Security Reporter Anna Giaritelli yesterday.
AN EERIE CALM: Here’s how one reporter, Tom Squitieri of Talk Media News, described the scene last night as he walked the blocks around the White House: “As if a disaster is coming, the streets are mostly empty of civilians. Cars are scant, replaced by vehicles of numerous police entities, revving motors, flashing lights, doing U-turns. Above, helicopters twap-twap-twap and swirl and dive, officially to test radiation … Then the quiet returns and the city has only a silent whimper along its streets.”
“No street signs or tourist guides are needed to guide one to the White House. The desolation deepens and the wood covering businesses grows more frequent and thicker as the street numbers draw closer to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Squitieri writes.
“Some places brave it without wood to cover doors and windows. The Trump International Hotel at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., set to host a victory party Tuesday night, is uncovered — minus its usual buzz of crowds. So too is the Old Ebbitt Grill at 675 15th Street, N.W., a walrus platter throw from the new un-scalable fencing going up. Patrons dined and drank at the venerable establishment — along the route the British took in August 1814 on the way to burn the White House. It plans to open at noon on Election Day.”
Good Tuesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Victor I. Nava. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.
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NOTE TO READERS: Daily on Defense will not be published on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, as we observe the federal holiday honoring those who serve in America’s armed forces. We’ll return to your inbox Thursday, Nov. 12.
ADDITIONAL NOTE TO READERS: Today is Election Day, your last day to cast a vote in a bitterly contested election which both presidential candidates say is the most important since the last most important election. Please consider voting, if you haven’t already.
HAPPENING TODAY: President Trump will be phoning in to his favorite morning cable program, Fox & Friends, this morning to chat with hosts Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade. Trump also did an interview on the morning of the election with the program in 2016.
THE LATEST ATTACK IN KABUL: The SITE Intelligence Group says Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISKP, the Afghanistan branch of the Islamic State, is claiming responsibility for a deadly attack on Kabul University that left at least 22 dead and 22 wounded.
The Taliban, which has an agreement with the U.S. to reduce violence in the country as a predicate to peace talks, disavowed responsibility and condemned the attack in which gunmen shot students at their desks, detonated explosives, and took hostages. “These sites are not military outposts, bases, or other military targets that might justify attacks, but such attacks are to display savagery, spread terror, and conduct propaganda,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban.
“ISKP remains a growing concern, even as U.S. CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie is optimistic that the Taliban will actually help the United States fight against ISKP militants, as he said back in mid-March,” wrote RAND researchers Abdul Sayed and Colin P. Clarke in September. “However, it still retains the capability to conduct spectacular attacks with near impunity in the Afghan capital.”
GATES’S LETTER TO WSJ EDITOR: Ever since the publication of his 2014 book, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, the most quoted passage has been the one where former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Robert Gates said of former Vice President Joe Biden, “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
Gates has stood by the criticism in recent interviews but is objecting to the quote now being used to suggest that he would support President Trump over Biden in today’s election.
“While it is certainly fair to quote my criticisms of Joe Biden’s record on national security, fairness requires me to note for the record that those comments written in 2014 also noted that Mr. Biden was a man of genuine integrity and character,” Gates said in a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal. “It is also worth noting that I wrote in these very pages that Donald Trump “is stubbornly uninformed about the world and how to lead our country and government, and temperamentally unsuited to lead our men and women in uniform. He is unfit to be commander in chief.”
Gates was responding to an Oct. 30 editorial, “The Biden Contradiction.” He has endorsed neither candidate, saying, “Since entering public service 54 years ago, I have avoided getting involved in partisan politics.”
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: US Army Africa commander explains why troops are needed in Somalia
Washington Examiner: DHS preparing for attacks against federal buildings in Washington
Washington Examiner: Pentagon imposes COVID rapid tests on officials traveling overseas
Washington Examiner: German defense minister takes hard-line stance on Huawei
Reuters: U.S. Drone Sale To Taiwan Crosses Key Hurdle, Nears Approval: Sources
Wall Street Journal: The military uses drones for training and other purposes as lawmakers, experts warn of possible risks of data theft
New York Times: China Envisions A New Hong Kong, Firmly Under Its Control
Stars and Stripes: U.S. And South Korea Closely Monitoring North Korean Nuclear Complex, Military Official Says
Reuters: Why the U.S. military would welcome a decisive 2020 election win
Proceedings: Berger: Marines Will Help Fight Submarines
Task & Purpose: Marines Are Getting Their First New Amphibious Vehicle Since Vietnam. Here’s The Firepower That Comes With It.
Stars and Stripes: Chinese Ships Break Record For Days Spent Near Contested Senkaku Islands In East China Sea
New York Times: Gunmen Attack Central Vienna, Killing Two And Wounding 15
Air Force Magazine: Burt Tapped for Two Key Space Combat Jobs
New York Times: An Expanded Push To Ward Off Hackers
Air Force Magazine: Moody PJ Gets Silver Star for Heroism Amid Afghan Ambush
Marine Corps Times: Commandant’s Reading List Includes Books About Female Marines For The First Time ― But Is It Enough?
Task & Purpose: 3 Marines Got Drunk In Japan Over Halloween Weekend And Were Treated To Jail In Three Separate Incidents
Calendar
TUESDAY | NOVEMBER 3 | ELECTION DAY
10:30 a.m. — Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, makes pre-recorded remarks at the Pentagon’s virtual 2020 Defense Acquisition Awards Ceremony. Livestreamed at https://www.defense.gov/Watch/Live-Events/
1 p.m. — Washington Post Live Election Daily webcast on the 2020 election, with Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, D-Pa. https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live
WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 4
1:30 p.m. — Autonomous & Hypersonic Weapons Systems Virtual Symposium, wi- Asst Dir. for Hypersonics Mike White, OUSD(R&E) (1:30 p.m. EST); Joint Hypersonics Transition Office Dr. Gillian Bussey, OUSD(R&E) (2:05 p.m. EST), speak @ Autonomous & Hypersonic Weapons Systems Virtual Symposium (register @ https://www.asdevents.com/aerospace-defence
2 p.m. — Heritage Foundation “Member Call” on 2020 election results, with Heritage President Kay C. James; Tommy Binion, vice president of government relations; and Jessica Anderson, executive director, Heritage Action for America.
THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 5
8 a.m. — Woodrow Wilson Center’s Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy webcast: “The Korean Peninsula After the U.S. Election,” with former State Department Special Representative for North Korea Policy Joseph Yun, senior adviser at the U.S. Institute of Peace Asia Program; Kim Joon-hyung, chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy; Kim Jiyoon, political analyst and host of TBS FM’s “Evening Show”; and Jean Lee, director of the Hyundai Motor-Korean Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/korean-peninsula-after-us-election
9 a.m. — National Defense Industrial Association virtual 2020 Joint Armaments, Robotics and Munitions Digital Experience, with Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Donahoe, commanding general of the Army Maneuver Center of Excellence (pre-recorded); Army Brig. Gen. Vincent Malone, joint program executive officer of the Army Joint Program Executive Office (pre-recorded); and Donald Sando, deputy to the commanding general and director of capabilities development and integration at the Maneuver Center of Excellence. https://www.ndia.org/events
9 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies webcast: “The U.S. presidential election and what it means for the U.S.-ROK alliance and North Korea moving forward,” with former U.S. Ambassador South Korea Christopher Hill, professor at the University of Denver. https://www.csis.org/events/online-event
9 a.m. — German Marshall Fund of the United States webinar on a new Institute for the Study of War report: “Putin’s Offset: The Kremlin’s Geopolitical Adaptations Since 2014,” with Kimberly Kagan, president of the Institute for the Study of War; Nataliya Bugayova, nonresident national security fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and director of intelligence at Tecsonomy; Ben Hodges, chair in strategic studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis; Teija Tiilikainen, director of the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats; and Oksana Syroid, co-chair of the Lviv Security Forum. https://www.gmfus.org/events/putins-offset
11 a.m. — Space Foundation’s Space Symposium 365, with Gen. James Dickinson, commander United States Space Command. https://spacesymposium365.org
12 p.m. — Heritage Foundation virtual event: Post-Election Analysis: What Lies Ahead for America?” with Kay C. James, Heritage Foundation president; William Bennett, former Education Secretary and Drug Czar; Jim Geraghty, senior political correspondent, National Review; John Yoo, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley and fellow, American Enterprise Institute; and Byron York, chief political correspondent, Washington Examiner. https://www.heritage.org/the-constitution/event
FRIDAY | NOVEMBER 6
9 a.m. — National Defense Industrial Association virtual 2020 Joint Armaments, Robotics and Munitions Digital Experience, with Assistant Defense Secretary for Acquisition Kevin Fahey. https://www.ndia.org/events
1 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies webcast: “Enabling the 21st Century Operator,” with Joint Artificial Intelligence Center Director Lt. Gen. Michael Green. https://www.csis.org/events/online-event
2:30 p.m. — University of Washington Space Policy and Research Center (SPARC) Symposium, with remarks by Maj. Gen. John Shaw, commander, Combined Force U.S. Space Component Command; and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. https://www.sparc.uw.edu/2020-symposium
TUESDAY | NOVEMBER 10
9 a.m. — American Enterprise Institute webcast: “Gray-zone aggression: Countering a growing national security threat,” with Elisabeth Braw and Pål Jonson of the Swedish Parliament; retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, Cyberspace Solarium Commission; and Hélène Galy of Willis Research Network. https://www.aei.org/events/gray-zone-aggression
TUESDAY | NOVEMBER 17
11 a.m. — The Heritage Foundation releases its 2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength, with Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry, ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. https://www.heritage.org/defense/event/virtual-event
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Some people would like to cause mayhem and trouble. That all saddens me.”
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, commenting on the number of businesses in the nation’s capital boarded-up out of fear of post-election violence.
