Elbridge Colby understands the China threat

I’ve known Elbridge Colby, or Bridge, for years. He’s one of the premier defense and foreign policy minds of our generation. Trump knew what he was doing when he nominated Bridge to be the lead policy official at the Department of Defense.

Bridge already knows his way around the Pentagon. In the first Trump administration, he was responsible for defense strategy, force development, and strategic analysis in the same policy office he’s now been asked to lead. 

While in that role, Bridge co-led the development of Trump’s pivotal 2018 National Defense Strategy. During this tenure, Bridge never allowed himself to be captured by the short-sightedness or bureaucratic rot that has captured the department.

Bridge has never shied away from telling the hard truths that the establishment foreign policy machine in Washington refuses to hear. Within the 2018 National Defense Strategy, of which he was the lead architect, Bridge acknowledged that our decades-long focus on wars in the Middle East had wasted American blood, treasure, time, and attention. He was correct.

He rightly helped recalibrate the Defense Department’s focus on the threat from Communist China and on maintaining American superiority in the Pacific.

Since then, Bridge has ruffled establishment feathers by pointing out the obvious: In our blind rush to aid Ukraine, we’ve squandered nearly $175 billion taxpayer dollars on defending the sovereignty of a country 5,000 miles away that we should’ve spent on our own defense. Worse, we’ve exhausted stockpiles of weapons that we need to counter China. Bridge has called for European NATO allies to drastically increase their defense commitments, breaking their habit of freeloading off the United States for European security.

Bridge is laser-focused on the military threat from China and is an ironclad supporter of our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific. Unlike the leaders of the Biden Pentagon, Bridge won’t attempt to downplay the imminent threat of a Chinese attack on Taiwan by kicking the can down the road.

Bridge wrote an entire book, Strategy of Denial, about his plan to counter China’s militaristic ambitions and defeat an invasion of Taiwan. Bridge is consistent in urging our friends in the region to act in their own interests, pushing them to build their own defense strategy before they run out of time.

Standing with our great ally Israel, Bridge has been a steadfast defender of the Jewish state, both in its war against the brutal terrorists of Hamas and in its ongoing struggle against an Iranian regime hellbent on its destruction.

He fully backs military support for Israel and the president’s strong pro-Israel stance. Bridge understands that Israel’s fight is America’s fight and that when Israel wins, America becomes more secure. That’s why the Republican Jewish Coalition has wholeheartedly endorsed Bridge for this job.

And despite the unfounded, and usually anonymous, attacks on Bridge, national security leaders of all stripes admit that he’s eminently qualified for the job. Just last week, 80 conservative national security leaders, from Bush-era officials to strong America first intellectuals who served under Trump, joined an open letter in support of Bridge.

In a different era, where the Democratic Party took our national security seriously, a man with Bridge’s experience and strategic vision would be confirmed by the Senate almost unanimously.

TRUMP PENTAGON PICK ELBRIDGE COLBY FACES GOP HEADWINDS AHEAD OF SENATE HEARING

The threats we face around the world are increasingly sophisticated. I’m confident that with Bridge in charge of developing our defense strategy, supporting Secretary Hegseth, and advancing Trump’s agenda of peace through strength, America will be wholly prepared.

When Bridge comes before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, he will have my full and unwavering support. I urge my fellow senators on the committee to support his swift confirmation.

Jim Banks is a U.S. senator for Indiana and is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He is a Afghanistan veteran.