© Reuters / Fabrizio Bensch
A nuclear-powered United States aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea, 2010.
Did the Pentagon just officially declare a new Cold War with both China and Russia while also committing to wage endless wars around the globe? Apparently, yes - that was the central message of the Trump administration's newly released
National Defense Strategy, which, as Andrew Bacevich
noted,
offers no strategy and isn't about defense. More than anything else, the document is another salvo in the push for a massive and costly military buildup.
"We are facing," the NDS declared, "increased global disorder...creating a security environment more complex and volatile than any we have experienced in recent memory." That may read as correct to you, but the Pentagon isn't talking about catastrophic climate change, debilitating inequality, or the destabilizing flows and misery of millions of displaced refugees.
No, the NDS focus is the threat of Cold War adversaries. As Defense Secretary Jim Mattis
put it in presenting the document, "[W]e will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists that we are engaged in today, but Great Power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security."
China and Russia are described as "revisionist powers" posing a genuine threat to the world: "[They] want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model-gaining veto authority over other nations' economic, diplomatic, and security decisions," the NDS said.
Comment: See also: The Memo: An in-depth analysis of rampant abuse and possible contempt of Court