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John Noonan is a conservative national security commentator and analyst. He was the national security policy advisor to Jeb Bush during his presidential campaign, and foreign policy advisor and speechwriter for Mitt Romney in 2012. He is a principal defense writer for The Weekly Standard and a former policy director of the Foreign Policy Initiative.

Noonan is a graduate of Fishburne Military School and the military history program at the Virginia Military Institute, where he also received his officer's commission in the United States Air Force.

Career

Before moving to the FPI, the then Captain Noonan served in the United States Air Force's Global Strike Command as a Minuteman III launch officer. While still on active duty, he started a defense blog for Military.com called OPFOR (a military acronym for "opposing force"). OPFOR was one of the first military blogs drawn on by Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard to refute the war reporting of Scott Beauchamp in 2007. Later that year, Noonan joined the Standard as a defense stringer and blogger. He is the second military blogger, after the blog's Andrew Exum joined the Center for a New American Security, to assimilate into Washington's influential defense policy community.

Criticism

Noonan has drawn fire from liberal and progressive groups for his foreign policy positions, particularly on US nuclear weapon issues. In June 2010, the Institute for Policy Studies lumped the former airman in with the "more hawkish extreme" of the Republican Party, along with Cliff May, Edwin Meese, and Frank Gaffney. He also assumed a sharply hawkish posture on the 2008 South Ossetia War, calling the refusal of European nations to admit Georgia into NATO the result of "Chamberlain-esque conflict aversion."

Despite that criticism, Noonan has been reported amongst a group of conservatives who are gaining increasing influence in Washington. His practical experience working with nuclear weapons placed him in a point position for conservative opposition to President Obama's nuclear disarmament initiatives, as has his ability to accurately project the outcome of certain geopolitical events such as the recent wars in Lebanon and Georgia.

In August 2016, Noonan wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump "cannot be trusted with weapons that can kill millions. He cannot be handed the nuclear 'football' – a briefcase containing the war plans and codes for our nuclear forces—and be made responsible for its contents." His editorial followed a series of posts on Twitter expressing the same sentiments. Noonan is one of several dozen Republican security officials who signed an open letter pledging not to support Trump for president.

References

1. "On the Trail Again – John Noonan '99 Tapped as Jeb Bush's National Security Advisor". fishburne.org. Fishburne Military School. July 28, 2015. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
2. Johnson, Eliana; Gehrke, Joel (April 17, 2015). "Meet Jeb Bush's National Security Adviser". nationalreview.com. National Review. Retrieved August 3, 2016. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
3. ^ "John Noonan | Foreign Policy Initiative". Foreignpolicyi.org. Archived from the original on December 23, 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
4. "An Unofficial Critique of the US Air Force - Steve Schippert - The Tank on National Review Online". Tank.nationalreview.com. 2008-06-06. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
5. ^ "Military BlogJam: Opposing Force - Ryan Grim". Politico.Com. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
6. "TNR's Shameless Mystery Soldier Revealed: Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp - The Right Angle @". Humanevents.com. 2007-07-26. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
7. Dilegge, Dave (2007-07-22). "SWJ Blog: Bloggers Raise Red Flags Over New Republic's 'Baghdad Diarist' (Updated): Print This". Small Wars Journal. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
8. "Scott Thomas Exposed". OPFOR. 2007-07-26. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
9. "Abu Muqawama | Center for a New American Security". Cnas.org. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
10. "Andrew M. Exum | Center for a New American Security". Cnas.org. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
11. "New Nukes!". The Weekly Standard. 2010-06-07. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
12. "Ending Obama's Cold War Mentality". The Weekly Standard. 2010-04-12. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
13. "DoD Releases Nuclear Stockpile Figures". The Weekly Standard. 2010-05-04. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
14. "The Nuclear Posture Attack - Right Web - Institute for Policy Studies". Rightweb.irc-online.org. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
15. "David vs. Goliath - Caucasus Edition". The Weekly Standard. 2008-08-08. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
16. "Conservatives seeking to deep-six nomination of missile-defense critic | The Cable". Thecable.foreignpolicy.com. 2010-03-11. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
17. https://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/08/slate_gets_it_wrong.asp
18. Noonan, John (August 9, 2016). "I was a Minuteman III nuclear launch officer. Take it from me: We can't let Trump become president". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
19. Bateman, Robert (August 8, 2016). "Here's Why Trump Can't Be Trusted with the Nuclear Codes". Esquire. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
20. Tunney, Kelly (August 4, 2016). "Who Is John Noonan? The National Security Analyst's Twitter Attack On Donald Trump Is On Point". Bustle. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
21. Julian Hattem; Ben Kamisar (August 6, 2016). "Nuke fears grow over Trump". The Hill. Retrieved August 9, 2016.

External links

• John Noonan on Twitter

• Living people
• Fishburne Military School alumni