Stop treating vets as untrustworthy, second-class citizens in the SecDef debate
by Charlie Dunlap, J.D. · 8 December 2020
Like many Americans, I was surprised to hear that Michèle Flournoy was not president-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Secretary of Defense. Frankly, I was also disappointed as I know her and she’s a brilliant person who I’m convinced would make a superb SecDef. But allow me to also say that the objection now being raised against Biden’s pick, retired Army General Lloyd Austin, is a very wrong reason to reject him out of hand.
Various politicos, academics, and others are aflutter about the fact that Austin is a retired military officer. Evidently, they think that veterans are somehow untrustworthy, second-class citizens simply and solely because they served their country in uniform. That is a loathsome idea, one unworthy of a great nation.
I wrote about this four years ago almost to the day (“Don’t discriminate against vets who want to serve the new administrationâ€), but the issue has reemerged. Of course, critics point to 10 U.S.C. §113 that says “A person may not be appointed as Secretary of Defense within seven years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force.†(Austin would need a statutory waiver to serve.)
https://sites.duke.edu/lawfire/2020/12/08/stop-treating-vets-as-untrustworthy-second-class-citizens-in-the-secdef-debate/
