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..and The Beltway Ain\u2019t Happy. <\/strong><\/p>\n President Trump is taking an axe to the old ways of doing the nations business. From Iran to China, the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula he’s pulled out of arrangements made by the previous administration, re-negotiated treaties in America’s favor, and wants to end the nearly 70 year old stand-off in Korea. With the South being the victors, of course. <\/p>\n Poetrooper sent me this link to a very interesting article, discussing these issues, and more. <\/p>\n By Doug Macgregor It\u2019s tempting to view the recent attacks from within his own party on Trump\u2019s decision to leave Syria or the public wounds inflicted on the president by an ungrateful national security advisor as unique in American history, but that\u2019s not the case. In 1969, when President Richard Nixon first confided his intention to seek a rapprochement with China\u2014three years before Nixon\u2019s historic trip to Beijing\u2014members of his own Administration were not enthusiastic.<\/p>\n Nixon\u2019s National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, reacted to Nixon\u2019s decision with more than a little trepidation: \u201cOur Leader (President Nixon) has taken leave of reality. He thinks this is the moment to establish normal relations with Communist China.\u201d Kissinger later revised his opinion, but Kissinger\u2019s initial reaction demonstrates that Washington\u2019s emotional investment in the past all too often overwhelms reason and obscures opportunity.<\/p>\n Fortunately, President Trump is not easily deterred. In Northeast Asia, the president is pursuing a strategy aligned with Nixon\u2019s strategy in 1972. It\u2019s designed to reduce and, ultimately, eliminate the potential for armed conflict between China and the United States.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s determination to move forward with a new summit is based on much more than the president\u2019s perception of North Korea as the poster child for the failure of state socialism, a Northeast Asian State with a sub-Saharan African economy and a dying society sinking deeper and deeper into despair. President Trump also knows that half of China\u2019s investment in national defense is committed to internal security.<\/p>\n The true rationale behind President Xi\u2019s being granted exceptional authority is the real potential for nation-wide unrest if the Chinese economy\u2019s slowdown results in a potentially destabilizing \u201chard landing.\u201d It\u2019s an open secret that Xi has chosen Seoul to manage North Korea\u2019s decline. Thus, President Trump knows what Nixon knew: The United States and China have no compelling reasons to be enemies.<\/p>\n In Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, President Trump confronts a different challenge: A legacy of American military and political disaster that even the launching of U.S. military operations on the scale of Desert Storm could not reverse. After 9\/11, Americans went abroad in search of a new enemy\u2014Islamist Terrorism\u2014to destroy. Trump knows these military operations failed.<\/p>\n President Trump is well aware that the American military supplanted a secular Arab dictatorship only to replace it with Iranian political, military and economic domination of Iraq. Having lost 800,000 soldiers in its fight with U.S.-backed Iraqi Forces in the 1980s, It\u2019s painfully clear to Trump that Tehran will now fight any attempt by any foreign power to install an anti-Iranian regime in Baghdad\u2014an Iranian version of the Monroe Doctrine.<\/p>\n In Ankara, Trump knows that Turkey\u2019s membership in NATO is about as nominal as that of Greece or Bulgaria, but the president sees no benefit to the United States in cultivating conflict with Turkey. Like everyone else in the West, Trump knows that President Erdogan\u2019s Turkey is a Sunni Islamist Republic, much as Iraq is a Shiite Islamist Republic.<\/p>\n President Trump knows that when U.S. forces withdraw from Syria, then Moscow, Damascus, Tehran and Ankara will try to craft a solution to the civil war\u2019s devastation. Yet, Trump knows that solution will remain vulnerable to the violence of ruthless groups across the region. He also knows that Iran and Turkey will both compete for regional hegemony, but, like Russia, Iran and Turkey lack the economic strength and societal cohesion to bear the heavy burden that the competition will impose.<\/p>\n ~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n Doug Macgregor, is a decorated combat veteran and the author of five books. His latest is Margin of Victory, (Naval Institute Press, 2016). The retired Army colonel may be best known in the military for his book, Breaking the Phalanx.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The rest of this ‘must read’ article may be viewed here: Breaking Defense News<\/a><\/p>\n Thanks, Poe. Get rest and take your time; we’ll still be here when your ready to post again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nThe first quality of a great leader is the courage to break with the past when the facts change. For President Trump, facing facts means change. But real change\u2014ending the Korean War, disengaging forces from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan\u2014is anathema to just about everyone inside the Washington Beltway.<\/p>\n![\"trump\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/TrumpMilley-1024x683-e1548806669165.jpg\")
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