{"id":256363,"date":"2021-03-19T14:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T18:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=256363"},"modified":"2021-03-19T14:00:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T18:00:26","slug":"veterans-in-congress-speak-out-against-biden-defense-pick-colin-kahl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/veterans-in-congress-speak-out-against-biden-defense-pick-colin-kahl\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans in Congress Speak Out Against Biden Defense Pick Colin Kahl"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fveterans-in-congress-speak-out-against-biden-defense-pick-colin-kahl%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=256363&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-139448343.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Military veterans serving on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees are urging their colleagues in the Senate to oppose President Joe Biden&#8217;s Pentagon nominee Colin Kahl, telling the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Washington Free Beacon<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that Kahl is a pro-Iran &#8220;ideologue&#8221; and that &#8220;the only policy shop he&#8217;s qualified to run is in Tehran.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The congressmen are speaking out as Kahl&#8217;s nomination for undersecretary of defense for policy has stalled with the Senate Armed Services Committee\u2014Democratic senator Joe Manchin (W.Va.) remains undecided on the pick. Republican senators have already come out strongly against Kahl, citing his Twitter rants against the GOP and pro-Israel hawks, as well as his support for anti-Israel policies and the Iran nuclear deal. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vocal opposition from war veterans in Congress is likely to get the attention of key senators as Kahl&#8217;s nomination comes closer to a vote.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"posts-content__category-widget md:hidden -ml-4 -mr-4 my-8 px-4 py-6 bg-gray-100\">\n<h4 class=\"mt-0 text-red-600 font-medium font-sans uppercase\">Recent Stories in Biden Administration<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"list-none p-0 \">\n<li class>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/veterans-in-congress-speak-out-against-biden-defense-pick-colin-kahl\/\"><strong>Veterans in Congress Speak Out Against Biden Defense Pick Colin Kahl<\/strong><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/pro-israel-group-launches-six-figure-ad-buy-urging-manchin-to-vote-no-on-colin-kahl\/\"><strong>Pro-Israel Group Launches Six-Figure Ad Buy Urging Manchin to Vote No on Colin Kahl<\/strong><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class>\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/senate-narrowly-confirms-becerra-after-confirmation-fight\/\"><strong>Senate Narrowly Confirms Becerra After Confirmation Fight<\/strong><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kahl is &#8220;an ideologue who has personally attacked several Republican politicians,&#8221; Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a Navy Reserve lieutenant and member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Free Beacon<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> this week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;The last thing the Pentagon needs is another hyper-partisan,&#8221; said Banks. &#8220;And Kahl has repeatedly drawn moral equivalencies between Iran, the number one state sponsor of terror, and our allies. The Pentagon is there to protect all Americans, and its leadership should reflect the values and beliefs of all Americans. Colin Kahl is way out of step.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who served as a White House physician for Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, noted Kahl&#8217;s involvement in crafting the Iran nuclear deal and said it would be &#8220;irresponsible to confirm a chief architect of this defective deal to run what is supposed to be a nonpartisan policy shop at the Department of Defense.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Colin Kahl famously said that Iran would use our taxpayer money to buy \u2018butter, not guns,&#8217; when in fact Iran used our money to buy missiles and bombs and to support terrorist proxies and militias like Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda,&#8221; said Jackson. &#8220;The only policy shop he&#8217;s qualified to run is in Tehran.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">House Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), a retired <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Army<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> National Guard <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">colonel, called Kahl &#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a dangerous pick for our national security.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;On Iran, he opposed bipartisan bills proposing sanctions for the past decade, and he opposed the bipartisan designation of the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], a group with American blood on their hands, as a terrorist organization,&#8221; said Wilson, who also pointed out Kahl&#8217;s opposition to the airstrike that killed IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;We must not forget about the hundreds of American soldiers that were killed by the IRGC and their militias in Iraq by IEDs. Their families continue to suffer,&#8221; Wilson said. &#8220;There are a number of capable, competent, and mainstream Democrats in foreign policy, but Colin Kahl is not one of them.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rep. Greg Steube (R., Fla.), an Army veteran who also sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Kahl has &#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a grave misunderstanding of Iran&#8217;s capabilities and consistent endorsement of terrorism&#8221; and called the nomination &#8220;unacceptable.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As some of my colleagues in the House have also experienced firsthand through their service in the military and in deployments to the Middle East, the threat from Iran is very real and very serious,&#8221; said Steube. &#8220;Putting someone with this perspective in such an important role jeopardizes our national security, insults our allies in Israel, and strengthens our adversaries.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) said he opposes Kahl because his nomination signals the Biden administration&#8217;s plans to continue the Obama-era policy on Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;[President Obama&#8217;s] policy made America unsafe and was a radical departure from the policy of every one of Obama&#8217;s predecessors since Jimmy Carter,&#8221; said Gallagher, a retired Marine officer. &#8220;I feel it is my responsibility to oppose nominations of officials in the Biden administration whose intention is to normalize the abnormality that was Obama&#8217;s policy.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rep. Michael Waltz (R., Fla.), a combat-decorated veteran who also worked in the Pentagon&#8217;s policy-making department, said Kahl&#8217;s efforts to secure sanctions relief for Iran as part of the original nuclear agreement endangered American forces operating in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Iran is &#8220;inflicting direct casualties on us with cash that we unleashed, and weapons that they&#8217;re buying from our adversaries, the Chinese and Russians,&#8221; said Waltz, who says he saw firsthand how Iranian weapons and missiles threaten U.S. forces&nbsp;in the region\u2014weapons that Tehran could not have purchased without the cash windfalls the former Obama administration&nbsp;granted it.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"my-8 hide-print\">\n\t\t<!-- \/339474670\/Freebeacon\/InContent --><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1526555381173-4\" class=\"mobile-250 desktop-90\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Military veterans serving on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees are urging their colleagues in the Senate to oppose President Joe Biden&#8217;s Pentagon nominee Colin Kahl, telling the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2310825,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-139448343.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Veterans in Congress Speak Out Against Biden Defense Pick Colin Kahl","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-139448343.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Veterans in Congress Speak Out Against Biden Defense Pick Colin Kahl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2310825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}