To quote Shakespeare's Henry V, "The courses of his youth promised it not."  The then-deputy secretary of defense Patrick Shanahan gave a speech at an Air Force Association conference on September 19 last year that seemed overly deferential to the then-secretary of defense, the globalist known as General James Mattis.  The speech was light on factual content, reflecting a speaker who was a political animal, a speech composed of platitudes and pleasantries that showed contempt for its audience because it deliberately conveyed nothing of substance. Now that he is acting secretary of defense, the civilian Shanahan has only one layer of command to defer to and can be his own man, it seems.  For the first words from his mouth on taking command were "China, China, China" – no agonizing over terrorists whose faith will not be named, no hand-wringing over global warming, no apologia for allies who shirk...(Read Full Post)