How to Get the National Defense Strategy Out of Its Mideast Rut

[rangerrebew]

 How to Get the National Defense Strategy Out of Its Mideast Rut


    By Alia Awadallah

February 7, 2020


We need less talk about why we need to leave, and more about why we need to compete elsewhere.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper is working hard to reorient the Pentagon toward China and Russia. Last month, he directed everyone in his vast enterprise to give “ruthless prioritization” to great power competition, and on Thursday, he preached the message at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. But for all his efforts, the U.S. military remains mired in the Middle East — and even the conversations about it have little advanced in the two years since the National Defense Strategy arrived.

Here’s the problem: while plenty of people are arguing that the Middle East should matter less, far fewer are talking about why other regions — Asia, Africa, Latin America — should matter more.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/02/national-defense-strategy-two-why-us-still-mired-mideast/162960/

[catfish1957]

U.S. is now energy independent for the forseeable future.  Let the EU deal with the mess over there from now on.

[EdinVA]

strategy?  In order to have a strategy, you have to have an achievable objective.