“The King’s good servant, but God’s first.” Final words attributed to Sir Thomas More, brilliant scholar-author-philosopher of the Renaissance, just before being beheaded at the direction of King Henry VIII. He chose death rather than betray teachings of the Catholic Church to suit the King.
While I would not portray USAF Lt. General Steven Kwast as a modern Sir Thomas More in all respects, his career is being cut short because of his refusal to knuckle under to Air Force and other superiors while giving his constructive criticism of the ongoing faulty strategy, plans and programs of his favorite service — and our overall federal government.
Ironically in this case, General Kwast’s outspoken advocacy, which is slated to end his USAF career, reflects a loyalty to his Commander-in-Chief, President Donald J. Trump — and particularly to the president’s Space Force Initiative that has been openly challenged and undermined by previous Air Force leaders. This matter is also especially linked to the growing electromagnetic threats to the U.S. most recently elaborated by the Electromagnetic Defense Task Force (EDTF).
The threat of greatest concern that General Kwast has studied for years and is trying to warn his leadership (and more generally all of us) about is China’s focus on conflict involving energy and information — to be exploited in becoming the world’s dominant strategic power.
He says — and I have no reason to doubt him — that China is currently leading in these areas.
Illustrative in the information world of concern are “5G networks” — where we are admittedly playing “catch-up” and China’s Huawei reportedly leads the way. China has been stealing our technologies for decades to gain this leadership position, and the President is trying to counter that legacy and related Chinese misdeeds with his “tariff economic warfare” strategy. In some ways our commercial interests have contributed to this looming threat — e.g., via reported GOOGLE misbehavior.
The energy world of concern can be associated with our dependence on electricity and the vulnerability of our critical civil infrastructure — e.g., our electric power grid that is essential to our very survival. In addition to potentially attacking our electric power grid — e.g., with an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack — China is also seeking to exploit the role of space-based energy sources to dominate the future global energy world. The U.S. once led in such endeavors, but has allowed its lead to atrophy.
It’s long past time that the United States awakened to the downside of these possibilities, as General Kwast has warned.
Click here for the second EDTF report that was published last week by Air University; and click here for its first report. As Commander of Air Force Education and Training Command, General Kwast has not only been an active participant in producing these reports but also in speaking out over the past several years on the rapidly evolving and growing existential threat to Western Civilization, while the U.S. seems intent on resting on its laurels.
Click here for my Newsmax article last week that dealt with “Crucial Decisions Needed on the Space Force,” which gave my perspective on some pertinent background on General Kwast’s plight — not the least of which is that Pentagon “powers-that-be” have literally fired General Kwast after only half of the normal tour of the Commander of Air Education and Training Command — and that he is now on terminal leave.
I could write more . . . but for this week, I will conclude by quoting in full the article below. More to come in the future.
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Air Force Suppressed Space Force Debate; Lt. Gen. Kwast Spoke Truth To Power
By Peter Garretson, Breaking Defense, August 08, 2019 at 7:01 AM https://breakingdefense.com/2019/08/air-force-suppressed-space-force-debate-lt-gen-kwast-spoke-truth-to-power/
If the new Acting Secretary of the Air Force, Matt Donovan, is looking for someone who can “unleash the power of space’ he should look to the bold leadership of Steve Kwast and recommend his nomination to be the first Space Force Commander.
After the House of Representatives passed legislation calling for a Space Corps, the head of the Air Force, Secretary Heather Wilson, and the service’s Chief of Staff, Gen. David Goldfein, rejected the idea. Completely.
Then the Air Force placed a gag order — in government speak, Restrictive Public Affairs Guidance — which suppressed advocacy for a Space Force and stifled public debate. Only one Air Force officer, Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast, spoke publicly in favor of it. Air Force officers who hope to maintain our proud tradition of conscience over career owe him a debt of gratitude.
The gag order worked – for more than a year, during the most important Air Force debate in a century — the majority of officers have held their tongue. While polls by Air Force Times suggest that a majority of Air Force officers favor a Space Corps, only one of them displayed the moral courage to speak truth to power. His courage opened the floodgates for others to follow, ultimately overturning the false impression of a monolithic Air Force intent on blocking Congress and blocking the Trump Administration. Kwast provides a powerful example of character and moral courage that all officers should emulate.
One does not need to agree with Kwast or the Trump Administration on the need for a Space Force. His example is a model of principled behavior that military officers and enlisted should emulate.
When Congress asked for a Space Corps and the Trump Administration ordered a Space Force, did even one active-duty space professional senior leader speak out publicly in favor? No.
Could it be that not one senior space professional thought space was important enough to justify its own service? No. Why were Air Force space professionals absent from the debate? Why didn’t they offer dissenting best-military advice to the American people? The most direct answer is simple — they were told not to. Perhaps they agreed with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis or Secretary Wilson’s position opposing a new service. But recent remarks of Acting Air Force Secretary Matt Donovan and Senate testimony by STRATCOM commander Gen. John Hyten suggest that dissenting views may have been widespread.
If the new Acting Secretary of the Air Force, Matt Donovan, is looking for someone who can “unleash the power of space” he should look to the bold leadership of Steve Kwast and recommend his nomination to be the first Space Force Commander.
While others fought to maintain the status quo, Kwast pushed the envelope. He built partnerships with NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and other agencies critical to advancing comprehensive U.S. space power. As Air University president, Kwast commissioned efforts laying the groundwork for the most far-reaching thinking to advance U.S. space power. He commissioned the FAST SPACE study, which laid down the ground work for a partnership with the private sector to advance responsible and reusable launch, as well as so-called mega-constellations, which are now being advanced by DIU and the new Space Development Agency (SDA). Kwast sponsored the Space Horizons Task Force, the winning D3 team, Squadron Next, and ultimately the Schriever Scholars. The breadth of space vision and leadership he offers the nation is apparent in his address to the inaugural class of Schriever Scholars.
Those citizens who share the vision of an independent Space Force to secure America’s spacefaring future must count Kwast as first among its founding fathers, and the only one who has appeared willing to sacrifice his career to see its birth.
Principled dissent is an important counter-weight to the “yes-man” culture that silences too many in the American military from speaking their minds. Those officers and enlisted personnel working to maintain the culture of honesty, openness, and debate in the Air Force should be aware of his example in the tradition of Billy Mitchell and John Boyd. Without maverick thinkers, the forces of careerism and groupthink place our nation in peril because we fail to confront uncomfortable truths and deny the knowledge we need to make informed choices.
Military officers know that their highest duty is to the Constitution and that acting on their conscience occasionally requires breaking rules or orders to obey the higher good. Kwast walked the talk. True to his belief that the United States faces an existential struggle over human values with authoritarian powers, he was tireless in his efforts to alert all of us to the true scale of the threat.
Did Kwast’s advocacy of a broader and more aggressive approach to space power hurt his career? Yes. Last month, a replacement was named to take over his command, and no future position was announced for him. This not only forces an innovative and courageous officer into retirement, it also effectively subverts the Trump Administration by denying them a powerful voice in uniform who possesses an expansive view of space power.
Over its 243 years of history, the Navy has found it possible to have vigorous military debate and still have a disciplined armed service. The question isn’t about Gen. Kwast, the individual; the question is larger. Can the Air Force maintain a culture where creative and maverick thinkers talents are harnessed and not sidelined?
Peter Garretson is an independent strategy consultant who focuses on space and defense. A retired Air Force officer, he was previously the director of Air University’s Space Horizons Task Force, America’s think tank for space, and was deputy director of America’s premier space strategy program, the Schriever Scholars. All views are his own.
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Bottom Lines.
I seriously doubt that Acting Secretary Donovan has the power to overturn the decisions of his predecessor “confirmed” Air Force Secretary and Chief — nevertheless, I would encourage him to try with the DoD “powers that be.”
Sometime speaking truth to power is a valued commodity — certainly when given to wise leaders. The treatment of USAF Lt. General Steven Kwast is so far an example of a case when it has not been valued — and that is a damning comment on the vision of his past superiors.
They have potentially ended the 30-year exceptional career of an informed, effective, accomplished leader who has given us all warning of a looming and largely unaddressed growing threat.
It remains to be seen whether President Trump will understand this situation and rectify the past terrible decisions of leaders of the Air Force and, so far, the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Unless this terrible mistake is corrected, the example of such a failure sends an unmistakable, terrible message to all aspiring junior and middle grade officers who will lead the future Air Force. And it will not be lost on the other services.
Stay tuned!
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