WASHINGTON, Dec 25: President Donald Trump needs to change his entire national security team to successfully carry out his new foreign and defense policies, pulling out of the wars in Syria and Afghanistan, leading US military tactician Douglas Macgregor told Sputnik.
“Trump needs to change his whole national security team to implement his new foreign and defense policies,” Macgregor said. On Wednesday, the White House announced the United States would withdraw all troops from Syria within 60 to 100 days given that the Islamic State terror group (outlawed in Russia) had been defeated.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned the following day, citing the fact his views no longer aligned with Trump’s. That same day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had ordered the US military to withdraw some 7,000 troops from Afghanistan in the coming weeks. Numerous US lawmakers, pundits and most of the corporate-owned media who have supported US wars and military interventions abroad sharply criticized Trump’s decision. Macgregor cautioned that Trump’s new policies, though bold could not be successfully implemented until he appointed new senior officials who were sincerely committed to carrying them out, The current National Security Council (NSC) was as reactionary and anti-Trump as the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD), Macgregor said. “Without a clean sweep of both OSD and the NSC, disengagement from Afghanistan, ending the conflict on the Korean Peninsula and finding a way forward in the Ukraine Crisis will be very tough going,” Macgregor said. Under the US system of government, Trump already had the executive authority he needed to authorize such dramatic changes in policy, but he still lacked the cadre of officials that would be vital in ensuring they were implemented, Macgregor explained. “In matters of foreign and defense policy the constitution confers extraordinary executive power on the President, but for a fundamental change in direction he needs a new national security team,” Macgregor said. Douglas Macgregor holds a doctoral degree in international relations from the US Military Academy at West Point. Macgregor commanded in the Battle of 73 Easting, a decisive tank fight during the 1991 Gulf War.
(AGENCIES)
Follow our WhatsApp channel