Senate Confirms Controversial Choice for #3 Slot in Defense Department

On Tuesday, the United States Senate voted to confirm Elbridge Colby to serve as the Department of Defense's UnderSecretary for Policy, the #3 role in the Pentagon, affirming another of President Trump's nominations. Colby came under some questioning in the confirmation process over his views on the relative importance of the United States' roles in the Middle East and Europe as opposed to the Pacific.

The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Elbridge Colby, President Trump’s “lightning rod” pick to serve as the Pentagon’s under secretary for policy, despite the private concerns of several Republican senators about Colby’s past statements and views.
The chamber voted 54-45 to confirm the nominee, who will hold the No. 3-ranking job at the Pentagon and be in charge of briefing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on all defense policy matters.

That's a comfortable margin, although a couple of Republicans voted no, at least one expressing concern over Colby's prioritization of the Pacific theater.

Notably, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), an outspoken advocate for projecting American military strength throughout the world and supporting NATO allies, voted against Colby.
McConnell voiced concern about what he called Colby’s desire to prioritize U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific over those in Europe, Ukraine and the Middle East.
“Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move. It is geostrategic self-harm that emboldens our adversaries and drives wedges between America and our allies for them to exploit,” he said in a statement explaining his vote.

It's important to note that, despite the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, China remains the United States' primary geopolitical adversary. They are casting some increasingly ambitious eyes at Taiwan, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has already made steps that appear to support such a realignment.

Army Faces 20 Percent Cut in Size As Trump's Strategic Focus Shifts From Europe to Asia

Taiwan, of course, is a friendly nation and, unlike mainland (Communist) China, has a freely elected representative government. Taiwan and Taiwanese companies are also major suppliers of semiconductors. We have a quasi-treaty obligation to support Taiwan militarily if China attacks, but that support would likely be logistical and not necessarily direct military support.

In military matters as in economic matters, China is the elephant in the room, and they will likely one day seek to supplant the United States as the primary power in the Pacific. But Colby is aware not only of Taiwan's importance but that of Europe:

He assured (Senator Tom) Cotton (R-AR), a leading defense hawk, that he thinks Taiwan is “very important” to the United States.
He also told Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) that he views NATO as an important alliance, even though he believes it has to “adapt.”

It's a complicated world, politically and militarily, and it's only going to become more so.

There's another elephant in the room, albeit a smaller one: Iran. During his confirmation hearings, Colby pledged that he would provide President Trump with "credible and realistic" plans and options to deprive the Islamic Republic of its nuclear weapons program. And, in the end, we should remember that Colby is an advisor, even as his boss, SecDef Hegseth, advises the president. In the end, any military decision is President Trump's to make.

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