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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.’ “
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The federal government remained on a path toward a shutdown Friday as the House prepared to adjourn and Senate Democrats rallied against a short-term spending bill that does not offer protections for young undocumented immigrants or address other priorities such as disaster relief.
With less than 18 hours before the midnight deadline, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he would release his members to leave Washington midday Friday after a series of unrelated votes. The House passed the short-term bill Thursday evening by a vote of 230-197.
“We’ve done our job,” McCarthy told reporters Friday morning, saying it was up to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) “to decide if he wants a shutdown.”
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, remained short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill to fund the government through Feb. 16. The House’s imminent departure further decreased the possibility Congress will extend government funding for just a few days, as Democrats have requested.
President Trump, blaming Democrats, tweeted that they would rather have “illegal immigration and weak borders” than supply enough votes to keep the government open.
“Shutdown coming? We need more Republican victories in 2018!” Trump tweeted Friday morning.
By late Thursday, nine Senate Democrats who had voted for a short-term spending bill in December said they would not support the latest proposed extension. They joined 30 other Democrats and a handful of Republicans in opposing the bill.
[Who is sent home during a shutdown?]
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said late Thursday that he was “not inclined” to vote for a short-term spending measure because leaders did not keep their promise to hold a vote by the end of January on legal protections for young undocumented immigrants. On Friday morning, he said he preferred Democrats’ proposal of a mini funding extension to allow more time for negotiations, an idea GOP leaders rejected Thursday.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said he put the odds of a shutdown at 50-50 and was instructing federal agencies to prepare for the possibility. In a sign of the preparations on Capitol Hill, congressional staffers received formal notice Friday morning that they may be furloughed starting at midnight. Individual lawmakers will have to determine which aides have to report for work during the impasse.
As senators awaited news about possible votes, the White House prepared to delay Trump’s departure for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida until after a short-term spending bill is passed. The president had intended to leave Washington late Friday afternoon ahead of a lavish celebration of his first year in office that is planned for Saturday night.
The stalemate reflected Republicans’ effort to force Democrats into a series of uncomfortable votes aimed at dividing moderates from states Trump won in 2016 from party leaders and outspoken liberals considering runs for the White House. Ten Senate Democrats are seeking reelection in states that voted for Trump, and Republicans believe the current conflict could provide powerful fodder for political attacks later in the year.
While the short-term bill did not include protections for “dreamers,” immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, Republicans did attach a long-term extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and delays to several unpopular health-care taxes. The GOP cast the spending vote, in part, as a choice between illegal immigrants and poor children, military troops and others who rely on government benefits.
In an interview with Fox News Channel Friday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) blasted Democratic senators for putting the federal government on the cusp of a shutdown.
“These Senate Democrats are holding our men and women in uniform hostage over an unrelated issue. The Senate Democrats are holding children’s healthcare hostage for an unrelated issue. … They’re basically holding all of government hostage,” he said.
Emboldened by signs of division within the GOP, meanwhile, Democrats rallied for a showdown on what they believe is favorable ground: fighting for popular policies against an unpopular president.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday that her caucus was “greatly strengthened” by the unity they showed by opposing the spending bill on Thursday.
“All of the priorities we are insisting upon have strong bipartisan support,” Pelosi said in a message sent to fellow Democrats.
[Fact checker: Trump misfires with claim military also would “shut down”]
Thursday had ended late after a long, tense day on Capitol Hill that began with Trump on Twitter doubling down on his demands for an expensive border wall and accusing Democrats of snubbing the military.
Another tweet suggested that the children’s health program ought not to be attached to a temporary spending bill, contradicting his administration’s stated policy position. Much as he had to do a week ago after Trump tweeted about an intelligence bill, Ryan called the president to clarify matters, and hours later, the White House confirmed that Trump indeed supported the bill.
Later, Republican leaders were having trouble smoothing out a wrinkle in their plans to blame a shutdown on Democrats: hard-line House conservatives demanded concessions in return for their votes, casting doubt on whether the funding patch would even reach the Senate.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) hashed out a deal with Republican leaders to secure future votes on measures that would increase defense spending and tighten immigration laws. With that accord in place, the House voted 230 to 197 to pass the legislation. Only six Democrats broke ranks to support it.
A government shutdown causing employee furloughs has never occurred under unified party control of Congress and the White House.
The Trump administration is drawing up plans to keep national parks and monuments open despite a shutdown as a way to blunt public anger, and while the military would not cease to operate, troops would not be paid unless Congress specifically authorizes it.
The last shutdown, in 2013, lasted for 16 days as Republicans tried unsuccessfully to force changes to the Affordable Care Act. On Jan. 30, Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address.
Read more at PowerPost
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