FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
U.S. Neo-Con Faction Issues National Defense Strategy, Joins British Coup against Trump
Jan. 20, 2018 (EIRNS)—The National Defense Strategy (NDS) released by Defense Secretary Gen. Jim Mattis yesterday, under the umbrella of the December 2017 National Security Strategy, is a declaration of war against the core international policy upon which President Donald Trump was elected, that of reestablishing good working U.S. relations with the world’s great powers which the Bush and Obama regimes had destroyed. As such, it is part of the British-orchestrated drive to either hog-tie, impeach, overthrow or assassinate the President of the United States.
President Trump has reiterated repeatedly that good relations with Russia and China are a "good thing"; his opponents in the military establishment declare, in the National Defense Strategy document, that their "principal priorities" are mobilizing U.S. military, economic, financial, diplomatic, law enforcement, intelligence and "information" assets against Russia and China, because those nations—not terrorism or "rogue regimes"—are the United States’ primary adversaries. And why? Because they are "undermining the international order" of austerity and permanent war which the American people elected President Trump to end.
"National Defense Strategy Will Rebuild Dominance," the Department of Defense headlined its release on the press briefing Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development Elbridge Colby gave on the document yesterday. The 12-page unclassified "Summary of the 2018 NDS" attacks China and Russia over and over for threatening a unipolar world—which no longer exists. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is not mentioned by name (in the unclassified document, at least), but China is repeatedly denounced for "using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors." U.S. allies and partners are to be squeezed to provide "greater defense cooperation" and "contribute military capabilities" to regional "coalitions" in Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific, in particular; the Defense Department intends to mobilize interagency action to "counter" U.S. allies’ economic relationships with "adversaries." Space, too, is declared to be a "warfighting domain," while the U.S. nuclear force triad is to be modernized.
Reflecting the old, tired oligarchic geopolitical intent which typifies the document as a whole, excerpts from the "Strategic Environment" section argues that "China and Russia are now undermining the international order from within the system by exploiting its benefits while simultaneously undercutting its principles and rules of the road." It claims that the "reemergence of long-term, strategic competition by what the National Security Strategy classifies as revisionist powers" is the "central challenge to U.S. prosperity and security.... It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model—gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions."
Moreover, it claims, "China is leveraging military modernization, influence operations, and predatory economics to coerce neighboring countries to reorder the Indo-Pacific region to their advantage. As China continues its economic and military ascendance, asserting power through an all-of-nation long-term strategy, it will continue to pursue a military modernization program that seeks Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the near-term and displacement of the United States to achieve global preeminence in the future.... Concurrently, Russia seeks veto authority over nations on its periphery in terms of their governmental, economic, and diplomatic decisions, to shatter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and change European and Middle East security and economic structures to its favor."
