Today's D Brief: Stand-down for extremism; US-Saudi ties; Straits transit; ‘Underpants Poisoner’; A

[rangerrebew]

 Today's D Brief: Stand-down for extremism; US-Saudi ties; Straits transit; ‘Underpants Poisoner’; And a bit more.
 
By Ben Watson
February 4, 2021

    The D Brief

What in the world should the U.S. military do about its white nationalism problem? That’s one big question plaguing Pentagon leadership, Reuters reported Wednesday as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “announced plans for military-wide stand-downs pausing regular activity at some point in the next 60 days to tackle the issue.”

Said Pentagon spox John Kirby: “We don’t know how we’re going to be able to get after this in a meaningful, productive, tangible way and that is why he had this meeting today and that is why he certainly ordered this stand-down.”

As for why, Kirby said, “January 6, I think, really not just shocked the nation, but it certainly had an electric effect here at the Department of Defense in terms of the notion that anybody active duty, let alone in the veteran community and active duty could be involved in that.”

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/02/the-d-brief-february-04-2021/171848/