‘No’ to General Austin

Joe Biden intends to nominate General Lloyd J. Austin III for secretary of defense. The nomination should be rejected.

There isn’t much wrong with General Austin, save the fact that he is General Austin. U.S. law requires a seven-year gap between active-duty military service and serving as secretary of defense, the idea being to keep military policy firmly in civilian hands and to limit the political clout — and the political ambition — of the nation’s senior military commanders.