Defense Secretary Jim Mattis leaves a luncheon meeting of Senate Democrats in Washington on Jan. 9. Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The United States must build up its military to prepare for the possibility of conflict with Russia and China, according to a new Pentagon strategy released Friday by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis as he took Congress to task on the eve of a potential government shutdown for years of failing to reach budget deals.
Mattis was due to unveil the strategy Friday morning at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and described it in an advance copy of his speech as a “clear-eyed appraisal of our security environment with a keen eye of America’s place in the world.” It relied on a “fundamental precept” that Mattis states frequently: “America can afford survival.”
But the defense secretary saved some of his tough words for lawmakers as the government approaches a shutdown at midnight, saying that the military needs Congress “back in the driver’s seat” and making budget decisions.
“For too long we have asked our military to stoically carry a ‘success at any cost’ attitude, as they worked tirelessly to accomplish the mission with inadequate and misaligned resources simply because the Congress could not maintain regular order,” Mattis said. “Loyalty must be a two-way street. We expect the magnificent men and women of our military to be faithful in their service, even when going in harm’s way. We must remain faithful to those who voluntarily sign a blank check to the American people, payable with their life.”
Mattis cited a comment from House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R.-Wis.) in underscoring his opinion: “Our men and women in uniform are not bargaining chips.”
The new National Defense Strategy describes the United States as “emerging from a period of strategic atrophy,” and assesses that the United States must make a sustained financial investment in the military to overcome it. The strategy was formed after years of frustration from senior military leaders that the Pentagon’s fleet of aircraft, vehicles and ships have been worn down in seemingly endless warfare.
“We will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorist, but great power competition — not terrorism — is now the primary focus of U.S. national security,” Mattis said. “This strategy is fit for our time, providing the American people the military required to protect our way of life, stand with our allies and live up to our responsibility to pass intact to the next generation those freedoms we enjoy today.”
The strategy document itself is classified, but an 11-page summary shows that it calls for building a larger, more agile military, strengthening military alliances from the Middle East to Asia and reforming the Pentagon’s acquisition programs to field weapons equipment more quickly, with upgrades made as needed afterward. The strategy advocates pursuing several options that have long been considered, including preparing U.S. forces to fight from smaller, dispersed bases, investing in robotic equipment that acts independently, and modernizing nuclear weapons and missile defense.
“The surest way to prevent war is to be prepared to win one,” Mattis wrote in the unclassified summary. “Doing so requires a competitive approach to force development and a consistent, multiyear investment to restore warfighting readiness and field a lethal force.”
The document is likely to be greeted warmly by those interested in spending more money on the military, and skeptically by those who note that the Pentagon often puts together new documents outlining strategy, only to disregard them later. Senior Pentagon officials cast it as a blueprint that Mattis will use to press for change.
“I think there is much deeper and wider appreciation for the challenges to American military advantage than there have been in the past,” Elbridge Colby, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, told reporters in advance of the document’s release. “I can certainly guarantee to you that this is associated with big implementation efforts that have already started to bear fruit, and it will continue to do so.”
Asked whether he could provide examples of efforts that already have shifted or changed, Colby said that he didn’t think so.
The classified document was mandated by Congress in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, which called for the defense secretary to present a new national defense strategy in the year following a presidential election. It replaced other unclassified strategy documents, which critics said became increasingly broad and obsolete because they were unclassified.
The new defense strategy was written at the same time as the national security strategy that President Trump released in December, and flows from the president’s vision of “peace through strength,” Colby said. Mattis had a hand in the formation of both.
Colby said the new strategy will continue to confront terrorism and rogue states such as North Korea as serious threats, but that maintaining military advantage over large powers is a top priority. Russia and China are concerns, he said, but Washington will continue to look for areas to cooperate with both of them.
“This is not a confrontation,” Colby said. “It’s a strategy that recognizes the reality of competition and the importance of ‘good fences make good neighbors.’ “
