Trump plans to end foreign wars
UNITED STATES: President-elect Donald Trump has laid out a military policy for the United States that would avoid interventions in foreign conflicts and instead focus heavily on defeating the Islamic State militancy.
In the latest stop on a ‘‘thank you’’ tour of states critical to his election win, Trump yesterday introduced his choice for defence secretary, retired marine general James Mattis, to a large crowd in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a city near the Fort Bragg military base, which has deployed American soldiers to 90 countries around the world.
‘‘We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with,’’ Trump said. ‘‘Instead, our focus must be on defeating terrorism destroying Isis, and we will.’’
He vowed a strong rebuilding of the US military, which he suggested has been stretched too thin.
Instead of investing in wars, he said, he would spend money to build up America’s ageing roads, bridges and airports.
Even so, Trump said he wanted to boost spending on the military. To help pay for his buildup, Trump pledged to seek congressional approval for lifting caps on defence spending that were part of ‘‘sequestration’’ legislation that imposed spending cuts across the board.
‘‘We don’t want to have a depleted military because we’re all over the place fighting in areas that we shouldn’t be fighting in. and It’s not going to be depleted any longer,’’ he said.
Trump said the policy of ‘‘intervention and chaos’’ must come to an end. ’’We will build up our military not as an act of aggression, but as an act of prevention,’’ he said. ‘‘In short, we seek peace through strength.’’
Trump described Mattis as the right person for the job, and urged Congress to approve a waiver to let him take on the civilian position. Under US law, a military leader must be retired for seven years before becoming eligible to become defence secretary.
Meanwhile, China called on US officials yesterday not to let Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen pass through the US en route to Guatemala next month, days after Trump irked Beijing by speaking to Tsai in a break with decades of precedent.
The US State Department appeared to reject the call, saying that such transits were based on ‘‘long-standing US practice, consistent with the unofficial nature of [US] relations with Taiwan’’.
China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, whom it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade province.
Her call with Trump last Saturday was the first between a US president-elect or president and a Taiwanese leader since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979.
Taiwan’s Liberty Times, considered close to Tsai’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, reported that she was planning to go through New York early next month on her way to Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Taiwan has not formally confirmed Tsai’s trip but visits to its allies in the region are normally combined with transit stops in the US and meetings with Taiwan-friendly officials.
The trip would take place before Trump is inaugurated on January 20. Tsai’s delegation would seek to meet Trump’s team, including his White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, the Liberty Times said.
An adviser to Trump’s transition team said he considered it ‘‘very unlikely’’ that there would be a meeting between Tsai and Trump. - Reuters