Reservations about Rex: Our view

Rex Tillerson has much to commend him as his nomination to become secretary of State comes up for a vote Monday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Tillerson displayed considerable achievement by rising to become chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, one of the world's largest and most successful companies. He knows leaders around the globe.

He has the backing of some well-respected foreign policy experts; on Sunday, he picked up important support from Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Tillerson was a better choice than the bombastic John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani, who Donald Trump also considered for State. And, at 64, Tillerson deserves credit for agreeing to delay a cushy retirement for the rigors of public service.

Yet there are also several reasons for reservations about Trump's choice for one of the most important national security posts. Like Trump, Tillerson is a wealthy businessman who never served a day in government.  If confirmed, he would be tasked with navigating the United States through increasingly treacherous foreign policy shoals, which requires different skills than negotiating oil deals.

Tillerson's rocky, day-long testimony before the Foreign Relations panel revealed causes for concern.. In his opening remarks, Tillerson, a former national president of the Boy Scouts of America, endorsed a U.S. foreign policy emphasizing moral leadership and invoked his personal commitment to the Scout creed of acting "on my honor." But during the question-and-answer sessions, he repeatedly expressed caution when it came to criticizing some of the world's most flagrant examples of human rights violations.

He declined comment about the thousands slaughtered in Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's ruthless war on drugs, and when asked Russia's merciless bombing of civilians in Syria,  Tillerson managed only an understated "that is not acceptable behavior." His muted response on Russia was especially disconcerting because of concerns about Tillerson's close ties to Moscow and Trump's obsequiousness toward President Vladimir Putin.

By comparison, Tillerson was alarmingly hawkish about China's occupation of disputed reefs in the South China Sea where artificial islands have been built. A firmer response to China's actions is appropriate, but Tillerson advocated sending China "a clear signal that first, the island building stops, and second, your access to those islands also is not going to be allowed." Is he proposing a military blockade? Tillerson's response sounded very much like fighting words, not like someone who wants to be the nation's chief diplomat.

Perhaps most troubling was how Tilllerson seemed to walk back his widely publicized concerns about global warming, views many thought would be important within a Trump cabinet filled with with so many climate-change skeptics. The former fossil fuel executive disagreed that climate change is a major national security risk, in contrast to a position held by the Department of Defense. And when it came to the Paris Agreement to limit global carbon emissions, Tillerson's answers were little more than rote. At least five times he repeated how the U.S. must keep "a seat at the table," not necessarily to provide leadership on climate issues but more parochially to ensure America doesn't sacrifice more than anyone else.

To his credit, Tillerson did draw some important distinctions with Trump, supporting the NATO alliance (which Trump has suggested is obsolete) and favoring a Pacific trade agreement that the new president opposes as part of his protectionist, "America First" worldview.

In fact, if Tillerson is confirmed, as appears likely after Sunday's McCain-Graham announcement, his true test is likely to be his ability to push back simultaneously against foreign adversaries and the ill-considered foreign policy demands of his erratic boss.

Paste BN's editorial opinions are decided by its Editorial Board, separate from the news staff. Most editorials are coupled with an opposing view — a unique Paste BN feature.

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