OPINION — “Our [the Joint Chiefs of Staff] job is to current and my job with the Joint Chiefs and others is to current the vary of [military] choices that this President or any President ought to think about with the entire secondary and tertiary concerns that go into these choices, so {that a} President could make no matter choice he needs to make — after which we ship.”
That was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees Gen. Dan Caine early in a 30-minute “fireplace chat” with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan earlier than an viewers on the Reagan Nationwide Protection Discussion board on December 6, on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California.
I need to analyze Caine’s remarks, as a result of they obtained virtually no public protection, and as Joint Chiefs Chairman, his said views are price recording – as had been his predecessors’ through the first Trump administration.
Caine, who’s extraordinarily cautious in his public remarks, was initially requested by CNBC’s Brennan early within the chat, “How are you advising the President on Venezuela?” His first reply was, “Fastidiously,” which drew fun, however then he went on with the intense reply above.
I picked that opening quote as a result of most senior army officers would have answered simply that they gave choices, however in my expertise few would have added the half about “the entire secondary and tertiary concerns that go into these choices.” In brief, I imagine what Caine mentioned in giving army choices to President Trump, was that he gave each the upsides and disadvantages of what may occur with every possibility.
In giving the above reply, Caine went on to say, “I would not need to share any specific recommendation or choices that we’re giving, however we current a number of them.”
Once more I might level out that Caine rigorously famous he wouldn’t spell out any “recommendation or possibility” he has given Trump, however the truth that to date the President has not but adopted via on his menace to assault floor targets in Venezuela could also be due to the “secondary or tertiary concerns” Caine mentioned could be the end result related to enterprise such overt actions.
The general public reactions to the 25 narco-boat assaults with their 95 related deaths has been unhealthy sufficient. However additionally they elevate questions on the place Caine stood on that subject.
In actual fact, CNBC’s Brennan began the dialog with Caine asking his views about “these Caribbean strikes and the reporting round them.”
Caine diverted from the query saying he was struck by the “kind of lack of confidence within the American army by the American folks and that is deeply regarding to me.” He then mentioned he needed so as to add one element to what Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth had earlier advised the Reagan Discussion board concerning the boat strikes.
That element, Caine mentioned, was that it was his concept together with Adm. Frank (Mitch) Bradley, the operational commander who ordered the so-called second strike on September 2, “to go up and
share the knowledge that we may share with the Congress.” The 2 gave labeled briefings to leaders of the Home and Senate Armed Companies and Intelligence Committees, in addition to army appropriators, on December 4, in response to The New York Instances.
Caine advised the Reagan Discussion board they’d accomplished it “in order that we may proceed to maintain and scale that belief that we should earn day-after-day from the American folks via the Congress.”
All through the 30-minute dialog, Caine prevented speaking about Trump administration coverage, simply two days after Trump’s 2025 Nationwide Safety Technique (NSS) had been launched.
For instance, when CNBC’s Brennan requested, “How do you see the alliance with Europe evolving?” – a controversial topic within the Trump NSS, Caine responded, “We do not do coverage within the Joint Drive. We execute these insurance policies.”
Caine did acknowledge the NSS’s new coverage emphasis on the Western Hemisphere.
“Defending the homeland isn’t just a time period that we are saying anymore. It is an actual factor and homeland safety is nationwide safety,” Caine mentioned. “I will not get into the operational issues, however there’s loads of seen examples…on the place we’re going to shield our neighborhood and do this pursuant to the issues that we’re capable of do to ensure America is a protected and safe nation.”
Caine then added, “Now we have not, in the event you look again over the arc of our deployment historical past over the previous couple of years, we have not had a number of American fight energy in our personal neighborhood. I believe that is in all probability going to vary. We’ll see what we’re ordered to do and naturally we observe that steerage.”
However Caine did give attention to conventional threats saying, “From a army perspective, army alone, {our relationships} are good in Europe, and I will let my bosses speak concerning the coverage there.”
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Caine was extra open when it got here to NATO. “Allies and companions are key and significant to us as we struggle collectively,” Caine advised the Reagan Discussion board. “NATO stays a key necessary ally for us. They’re, I feel, going to personal European safety each via NATO and bilaterally and individually. The army leaders that I talked to are inspired by the protection spending that is taking place inside their international locations. I might say, and have mentioned to them, the identical narrative round their protection and nationwide industrial bases as we attempt to scale European protection so Europe can personal Europe.”
Caine added, “The SACEUR [Supreme Allied Commander Europe] over there, [U.S.] Common [Alexus G.] Grynkewich, is carrying the identical message via his EUCOM [U.S. European Command] hat. However that mentioned, allies and companions stay a key half as specified by the nationwide safety technique.”
When it got here to the preventing in Europe, Caine advised the Reagan Discussion board, “I need to be fairly cautious about commenting on Ukraine due to the continued negotiations. And I am aware that something that I say may get spun somehow. I feel, for me, I imagine that we all the time need to be striving for peace and what’s occurred in Europe there’s a tragedy out on the Ukrainian entrance traces. So I will be fairly cautious given the conferences which might be happening.”
He did say, “What the Ukraine industrial base has accomplished to create tens of hundreds and tons of of hundreds of drones is extraordinary. These are the sorts of entrepreneurial classes that we need to take from that struggle.”
Caine additionally talked of a army lesson from Ukraine.
“It is one other case research within the significance of the flexibility to place air energy over a battlefield,” he mentioned. “And once you take a look at the mounted and frozen traces that we have seen out in Ukraine, it is a chance for us to be taught concerning the significance of defending the pressure on the bottom. And having been a kind of guys on the bottom earlier in my life, I worth significantly the flexibility to have an air pressure or some form of functionality that may are available there and put an adversary in a specific place of ache. We’ve not seen that on the market in Ukraine.”
Caine mentioned, “One of many classes out of Ukraine goes to be mass. And there is a number of exchanges happening. And once I take into consideration conflict preventing sooner or later, I see a number of exchanges, each within the kinetic and non-kinetic area, that’s in all probability unprecedented. So we’ll want a high-low combine that we have not seen earlier than…however we’re additionally going to wish considerably extra attritable [loseable] issues that may create a number of simultaneous dilemmas for the commanders on one other aspect of a struggle than for us.”
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Whereas the Trump NSS hardly talked about China, Caine did.
“Once we take a look at the rise of the Chinese language army,” Caine mentioned, “what our objective within the Joint Drive is to create a number of simultaneous dilemmas for the entire adversaries around the globe, in order that they’re very cautious and anxious about doing one thing that may convey any sense of menace to the American folks.”
Caine went on, “I feel China’s competing on the worldwide scale. I do know that from the U.S. perspective we have an financial relationship now that’s wanting optimistic and trending advantageous. We see China nonetheless creating a number of fight functionality and capability at scale, and because the Nationwide Safety Technique says, we owe it to the nation to ship a free Indo-Pacific and a free and protected and affluent Indo-Pacific. So once I take into consideration actions within the Pacific, aware of the President’s steerage, that is how we give it some thought.”
As for the Center East, Caine known as it nonetheless “crucial,” and mentioned, “It is nonetheless I feel undecided. I rigorously watch via the CENTCOM (U.S. Central Command) commander what’s taking place in Gaza. I stay as all the time involved about what Iran’s intentions are down there. These are conflicts which have been happening for an extended, lengthy, time. I am longing for peace however have to be ready for any variety of eventualities there.”
As for right here at residence, Caine advised the Reagan Discussion board, “What the American system, as it has been operating for a very long time now, is de facto good at is shopping for behind the know-how improvement curve [emphasis added]. And what we have to do is get in entrance of the know-how improvement curve. And that is going to require one of the best of the army, one of the best of the Congress, one of the best of the personal sector, and one of the best of not simply the protection industrial base, however the nationwide industrial base.
Caine defined, “Again in my life, I ran a small mother and pop machine store in Denton, Texas, that made elements for America’s aerospace and protection business. And I will inform you that everyone must up their recreation right here.”
He went on, “Now we have to change the tradition contained in the [Defense] Division. Now we have to vary the tradition inside corporations. And I have been in each. So I can see each of these items. Now we have to create and maintain and keep aggressive forces on the market out there the place we’re driving innovation in our company buildings and programs which might be going to provide higher fight functionality to the Joint Drive.”
As well as, Caine mentioned, “The army and the federal government have to be higher patrons and now we have to put in writing higher contracts. I’m nonetheless on step one in all my 12-step restoration course of from promoting to the federal government once I was a part-timer within the army. I feel now we have to discover a approach to share danger between us and the personal sector.”
Caine was an uncommon selection by President Trump, who had first met Caine again in December 2018 in Iraq. The President claimed throughout a 2019 political speech he had met an Military officer, “Razin Caine,” who had worn a MAGA hat, mentioned he’d “kill for Trump,” and claimed in Iraq he may defeat the ISIS terrorist group in Syria “in lower than 4 weeks,” three Trump statements Caine later denied in interviews and through his 2025 Senate affirmation listening to.
Once I first wrote about Caine final March, I used to be drawn to the details that starting August 2005 he served a 12 months as a White Home Fellow on the Agriculture Division and later, from October 2006 to January 2008, was Coverage Director for Counterterrorism and Technique for President George W. Bush’s White Home Homeland Safety Council. Caine’s final army put up earlier than resigning from the Air Drive in 2024 was three years as Affiliate Director for Navy Affairs on the CIA.
Nonetheless, on the Reagan Discussion board, Caine confessed, “I truly served on the Company [CIA] twice. One is in my bio, one will not be in my bio.” What’s that each one about?
Caine clearly is an individual the general public must observe extra carefully.
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