Oh snap, grab my belt, we’re going deep.
This move is not unexpected; especially for those who have followed the Trump Doctrine for the past two years. President Trump has announced reception of a notification from Defense Secretary James Mattis that he intends to retire.
The move makes sense on multiple levels. President Trump has been executing a policy, a clear doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approach.
Initially, the traditional military interventionist approach couldn’t just be reversed or dispatched; and James Mattis was the bridge to a path forward. Toward that end President Trump remove military constraints, allow rules of engagement that were much stronger, and let Mattis work on confronting and stamping out terror threats. In essence, an aggressive “lets get this over with” approach.
However, that strong-arm military approach cannot continue indefinitely because it will never end. War and intervention have a history of unnecessarily expanding, if not constrained. The war machine turns into a military business.
President Trump wants U.S. troops brought home from all the “stupid wars”; and as a consequence the time for Defense Secretary Mattis was sure to come to an end.
The Trump Doctrine of using economics to achieve national security objectives is a fundamental paradigm shift, history provides no reference.
