[Salon] Send all the Marines to the Pacific, a top Trump adviser says

We have been ill-served on this email list with so much Trumpian propaganda, almost as if it was a concerted political “cognitive campaign” directed by the same MIC Oligarchs who first got Trump elected in 2016 with the combined election interference campaign efforts directed by Charles Koch and Peter Thiel, with financial assistance by the Adelsons, that we’re still under the false belief that Trump was a “Restrainer.” Notwithstanding all he did to complete the military encirclement of Russia and China, and engaged with Netanayhu in a “clandestine” war against Iran. And joined with Netanyahu to dissolve any possibility of a future Palestinian State, by “preemptively” resolving any competing territorial claims, by giving it all to Israel, with the West Bank transfer begun by accepting all Israeli Settler claims, and demands. Delivered to Netanyahu by his own Israeli Settler, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel!

In fact, this Trumpian policy described below was already commenced under Trump and USMC Commandant David Berger, to the exultant cheers of the right-wing of the Quincy Institute and The American Conservative magazine, sold as “withdrawing Marines from the Mideast,” in the process of “Ending the Endless Wars” (haha). While omitting mention of the USMC’s accelerated deployment to INDOPACOM and increased “lethality" (and to Norway, see: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381295120_The_Logic_of_US_Deployment_in_Norway_The_Trump_Administration_and_NATO's_Northern_Front)

"The United States has to maintain technical and numerical superiority to the combined Chinese and Russian nuclear stockpiles,” O’Brien wrote, arguing that Washington needs to test new nuclear weapons in the “real world,” just not using computer models, for the first time since 1992.
"O’Brien also said if China and Russia continue to “refuse to engage in good-faith arms control talks,” the U.S. needs to “resume production of uranium-235 and plutonium-239, the primary fissile isotopes of nuclear weapons.”
"He also urged investing more in developing hypersonic missiles — which he specifically said a second Trump term would pursue — fixing the Pentagon’s clunky requirements and acquisition systems, and working more closely with “nimble newer defense suppliers” such as Anduril and Palantir.”

Ahh yes, the “Thiel Blob,” of the New Right!

"Good faith arms control talks”! Trump pulled us out of the last Arms Control treaties remaining after the previous Republican administration had begun doing so, except for New START, which was being allowed to expire by Trump at its end date in 2021, which was only averted when he lost the election (which Conservatives libertarians did so much to undo). And there was no doubt that to let it expire was his intent. As I probably mentioned at the time.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/18/robert-obrien-foreign-affairs-op-ed-00163935?utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sailthru

Send all the Marines to the Pacific, a top Trump adviser says
“This morass of American weakness and failure cries out for a Trumpian restoration of peace through strength,” Robert O’Brien writes in a new op-ed.

Meanwhile, O’Brien wrote, “the military increasingly lacks the tools it needs to defend the United States and its interests.” He pointed to the fact that the Navy now has fewer than 300 ships, compared with 592 at the end of the Reagan administration. O’Brien urges Congress and the administration to “recommit” to the goal of a 355-ship Navy by 2032 — a goal he played a role in setting during the Trump administration.

DOD also needs to improve its nuclear triad, O’Brien wrote, citing China’s and Russia’s recent modernization of their own nuclear arsenals. On the U.S. side, he called for building more Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines and Virginia-class attack submarines. He also cited some analysts arguing that the Air Force needs 256 new B-21 stealth bombers.

“China has doubled the size of its arsenal since 2020: a massive, unexplained, and unwarranted expansion. The United States has to maintain technical and numerical superiority to the combined Chinese and Russian nuclear stockpiles,” O’Brien wrote, arguing that Washington needs to test new nuclear weapons in the “real world,” just not using computer models, for the first time since 1992.

O’Brien also said if China and Russia continue to “refuse to engage in good-faith arms control talks,” the U.S. needs to “resume production of uranium-235 and plutonium-239, the primary fissile isotopes of nuclear weapons.”

He also urged investing more in developing hypersonic missiles — which he specifically said a second Trump term would pursue — fixing the Pentagon’s clunky requirements and acquisition systems, and working more closely with “nimble newer defense suppliers” such as Anduril and Palantir.

O’Brien did not push for increased defense spending — in fact, he noted that spending on the Pentagon will likely decline.

“Thanks to unsustainable levels of borrowing, the federal budget will have to decline, and large increases to defense expenditures are unlikely regardless of which party controls the White House and Congress,” O’Brien wrote. “Spending smarter will have to substitute for spending more in a contemporary strategy of peace through strength.”

[Salon] Send all the Marines to the Pacific, a top Trump adviser says - POLITICO

Send all the Marines to the Pacific, a top Trump adviser says

“This morass of American weakness and failure cries out for a Trumpian restoration of peace through strength,” Robert O’Brien writes in a new op-ed.