Biden names African-American General Charles Brown at the helm of the US Armed Forces

Chief of the United States Air Force General Charles Q. Brown has been selected by President Joe Biden to the highest military command in the country. If confirmed by the Senate, Pilot would be the first black chief of the US General Staff since Colin Powell held that position three decades ago. The tandem of Brown and the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, would mean that for the first time in history, the Pentagon would be led entirely by African-American leadership.

The former pilot will replace Gen. Mark Milley, who will go into reserve in September. The military leadership candidate has “a unique knowledge of our operations and areas of operation, and a strategic vision to understand how to cooperate to guarantee the security of the American people,” Biden told Brown at an event in the gardens. Presenting the assurance. white House.

Nicknamed “CQ” among his acquaintances, the soldier presents an impeccable service record. His extensive experience includes, prior to heading the Air Force General Staff, the command of US Air Forces in the Pacific, a region of great geostrategic interest to Washington and where the rivalry between the United States and China reaches its greatest intensity. reaches. He has also been posted in Europe and the Middle East.

As the highest level of military personnel in the military hierarchy, Brown will have to advise Biden on all kinds of defense issues, from the war in Ukraine to China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific. His experience in that area, where he has seen firsthand the sweeping modernization of Beijing’s military, is considered particularly valuable in the White House’s view.

“It is in managing and responding to China’s regional and geopolitical aspirations that General Brown’s appointment can really shape the future of US defense,” said Thom Shankar of the Atlantic Council think-tank. “In any complex scenario involving the South China Sea or any effort to grab territory from Taiwan … General Brown brings a range of vital and widely practiced skills.”

Brown’s proposal also aims to send a message in divided US national politics, with representatives of the Republican Party accusing the commanders of the armed forces of being overly progressive. A senator from that party, Tom Tuberville of Alabama, has been blocking all nominations for military commanders proposed by the Biden administration since February. The legislature believes that the military uses money from its budget to improperly finance the travel of its female soldiers who need to get abortions.

Jahan Mile has been an extroverted military man, a lover of history, who never shied away from speaking in public or sparing his time to explain the link between current situations and their relationship with past events – his wife has once asked him, after one of his wide-ranging discussions, if “he used all the words he knew” – Brown defines himself as an introvert.

According to Thom, the selection of an African-American soldier to command US forces “will be welcomed, rightly, as a milestone in shaping the image that our armed forces present to the world, and For myself, in the years to come.” Experts recall that, although about 40% of active US troops are not white, “too often the most prestigious leadership positions have been awarded to whites.”

Despite his bullies, Brown himself has spoken candidly about the condition and his personal experience. During Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020, he recounted in a video the discrimination he had faced throughout his life, even within the military. The video posted while he was still awaiting confirmation to lead the Air Force went viral, especially among US servicemen.

“I think of the protests (…) in our country, of the equality expressed in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that I have sworn to support and defend throughout my adult life. I think about the history of racial problems and my own experiences, which was not always full of freedom and equality,” he explained in the video that sparked mass fury after the death of George Floyd, an African-American civilian Was. Police officers in Minneapolis…

In his own case, he was “the only African-American in my squadron and, as a senior officer, the only African-American in the room,” he recalled then. Brown also recalled how he had to “work twice as hard” as his white peers to reflect the expectations and assumptions (by his superiors and his peers) about African Americans.

Brown is also an advocate of the need for change in the Air Force and, by extension, the entire US military to enhance its capabilities and respond to the modernization of its rivals. In 2020 he published a strategy memo titled “Quick Change or Defeat”, in which he warned against complacency and the idea that American air superiority is guaranteed in the event of conflict.

In the document, the general “underscores that America’s adversaries are actively developing their capabilities to directly respond to and reverse perceived US power,” recalled Delharty Manson, also of the Atlantic Council. “He always thinks about the future theater of operations.”

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