Huffington Postさんのインスタグラム写真 - (Huffington PostInstagram)「Lawmakers in the House and Senate approved Lloyd Austin as the new defense secretary on Friday, giving the Pentagon its first Black secretary and ending weeks of debate over President Joe Biden’s choice of a former Army general for a job nearly always held by a civilian.⁠ ⁠ After each chamber approved a waiver that allowed Austin to take the job just a few years after leaving active military service on Thursday, the Senate confirmed him Friday morning in a 93-2 vote. ⁠ ⁠ Austin is expected to be one of Biden’s closest advisers on foreign policy, especially on the issues of competing with China and reducing troop deployments in the Middle East. His appointment is a big step for a racially diverse federal institution whose leadership remains almost entirely white.⁠ ⁠ He takes over the Defense Department, America’s largest employer, at a deeply complicated time for the military. ⁠ ⁠ Amid a monthslong Republican effort to tamper with the presidential election, top military officers and former defense secretaries repeatedly emphasized that the armed forces have no role in vital democratic processes like voting and transferring power between presidents. But after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol ― which some veterans and current service members participated in ― the Pentagon deployed thousands of troops to Washington to secure Biden’s inauguration. ⁠ ⁠ With the clear and growing risk of political fights pulling in uniformed personnel, congressional lawmakers are anxious to affirm the limits of the military’s reach in American democracy and to investigate and root out radicalization among the troops.⁠ ⁠ Austin has told lawmakers that he’s committed to ending extremism within the Defense Department. “We can never take our hands off the wheel on this,” he said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday. “This has no place in the military of the United States of America.” ⁠ ⁠ But in its own way, Austin’s nomination by Biden boosted concerns about the politicization of the military. The job of defense secretary has only twice before gone to a former general. ⁠ ⁠ Read more at our link in bio. // 📷 Getty Images」1月23日 1時41分