At the top of America’s military might and operations are two Black men: Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr., chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There is also one other significant African-American commander: Gen. Michael E. Langley, head of Africa Command and the first four-star general in the Marine Corps.
In a recent article in the New York Times, these powerful positions in the U.S. arsenal were cited, most notably Austin and his second visit to the Middle East since the eruption of the war between Israel and Hamas. During a press conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, where he shared the podium with Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, Austin made it clear that the U.S. “will continue to stand up for Israel’s bedrock right to defend itself and will also continue to urge the protection of civilians during conflict and to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
He stressed the importance of protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza as “both a moral duty and a strategic imperative.”
Austin ended his opening comments with a quote from President Kennedy in 1960 that America’s friendship with Israel is a national commitment. “That was true then, and it’s even truer now…and as I’ve said repeatedly, our support for Israel’s security remains unshakable, and it always will.”
Even as he expressed an enduring support for Israel, Austin warned Israel that it could face “strategic defeat” and make the country less secure if it does not do more to protect civilians. This is something Austin said he learned firsthand from his experience in Afghanistan against the Taliban in urban warfare, as well as in Iraq in 2007 against the Islamic State.
There was a bit of humor at the press conference when Austin opened it up for questions, which began with a long rambling one. “Which one of those 12 questions do you want me to answer?” Austin quipped. The reporter said she had even more. “You know,” his response began, “we can offer some insight based on our own experience in fighting terrorist groups, and certainly that enabled us to have great discussions. And we also have some great thoughts about how to transition from high-intensity operations to lower-intensity and more surgical operations…we had great discussions on all of those—those issues.”
This was clearly about his urban warfare experiences. “…we had great discussions about the status of the campaign, about goals and objectives, and about how to reduce harm to civilians in the battle space and…the need to ensure a sustained flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” he said.
A few days ago, the crisis in the Middle East was compounded by outbreaks of conflict on the Lebanon border, where the menace of Hezbollah insurgents remains a grave concern, and even more alarming, when three nearly naked escaped hostages, bearing a white flag of surrender, were gunned down by Israeli forces.
More than 70 days into the war and some 20,000 Gaza deaths and Israeli casualties, there appear to be only an increase in bloodshed rather than a cease-fire and the release of hostages.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to receive bad news from the polls that suggest that young Americans are not satisfied with his handling of the war.
We have Black generals at the top of the military, but the question remains: Does that make a difference in the turmoil in the Middle East?