The House impeachment inquiry is set to move into a new, more public phase in the coming weeks. President Trump’s impeachment defense strategy will prevail. The President will be charting an unbeatable offensive strategy and ensuring the impeachment Endgame will fail. Some say that President Trump is swimming in uncharted waters as he may become the first president to seek reelection after being impeached. Don’t hold your breath.
The Deep State is the big story of our time. It is the red thread that runs through the war on terrorism and the militarization of our foreign policy, the CIA and DOJ. But these isolated cases have not provided a framework for understanding the extent of the shadow government, how it arose, the interactions of its various parts, and the extent to which it influences and controls the leaders whom we think we choose in elections.
If you don’t know what the Deep State is then, perhaps you are part of it. We know, of course, that the liberal Deep State that lurks within our government is and always has been hellbent on destroying President Trump and preventing him from making America great again. And we know for certain that Deep State weasels fabricated the whole Russia and Ukraine HOAX and myth.
There will be a reckoning—a reckoning of the Deep State and its operatives. A question has been proposed to me regarding the impact on US National Security as a result of the impeachment inquiry and proceedings, pushed by the Socialist Democrats and the media. Will foreign actors like China, Russia and Iran and the EU and others pursue actions detrimental to our National Security. How will US National Security be impacted and undermined by impeachment proceedings?
The President for weeks now has insisted there was nothing wrong with his July 25 call with Ukraine’s president and urged hesitant Republicans to defend him on the substance of the charges against him. The socialist Democrats (the likes of Schiff and Pelosi) are using the Ukraine issue as part of the rationale to pursue impeachment. This will be unfounded in the weeks to come. These purveyors of impeachment really believe the Ukrainian issue threatens our national security and Constitution. Trump has signaled he is ready to dig in, even floating in an interview that he might read the transcript of his Ukraine call in a “fireside chat.” The President expressed confidence that the public aspect of the hearings would help his case.
First and foremost, National security is a corporate term covering both national defense and foreign relations of the U.S. It refers to the protection of a nation from attack or other danger by holding adequate armed forces and guarding state secrets. The most important role of the federal government is protecting our citizens from national security threats. This means creating a strong system for defense both at home and abroad. The United States should continue to act as a defender of freedom and a staunch supporter of our allies worldwide despite the internal, domestic infighting that is occurring. I assure you that President Trump will not falter in this battle and our national security will not be impacted.
Measures taken to ensure U.S. national security include:
- Using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats.
- Marshaling economic power to elicit cooperation.
- Maintaining effective armed forces.
- Implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness policies including protecting our borders and anti-terrorist threats)
- Ensuring the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure.
- Using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage, and to protect classified information.
- Supporting counterintelligence services or police security operations to protect the nation from internal threats.
Next Steps for U.S. Strategy
The President and his national security team are rightly focused on the essential issues, yet it is also clear that many of those challenges are far from resolved. There is a clear continued requirement for the application of all instruments of U.S. power. Further, the U.S. will continue to stretch itself in order to be actively and simultaneously engaged in all three core regions. In addition, many regional issues spill over into competition into other areas. For instance, the Arctic is a region of increasing competition with China and Russia. The U.S. is also concerned about destabilizing Chinese and Russian activity and interference in Africa and Latin America.
With these concerns in mind, the next iteration of U.S. strategy must address not only key regional initiatives but must ensure that critical instruments of American power are prepared to respond appropriately globally with sufficient scope and influence. Rebuilding the “America First” US deterrence to preserve peace through strength must be our Nation’s top priority.
Stability of Key Regions. Addressing threats abroad helps the U.S. to avoid consequences at home. Promoting stability in critical regions prevents conflict there from cascading in ways that affect America. Stability abroad also provides for a free and secure global marketplace, which redounds to the benefit of Americans. Conversely, open warfare in areas where inter-state tensions are prominent—and the capability of adversaries the greatest—would have a major negative impact on the United States.
The U.S. must be present or have the capacity to project power to protect its interests worldwide. The U.S. is anything but the world’s policeman or a global babysitter. America must be prudent in the application of power. Three key regions link America to the world—Europe, the Middle East, Central and South America and the Indo–Pacific. These are also regions with a preponderance of U.S. friends, allies, and strategic partners with significant political, economic, and military power.
The Obama/Biden approach to handling world affairs and U.S. security during the eight years of their administration failed — with global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and human suffering rising and global freedom retreating. Additionally, communist China increased its activities against the United States, and according to the CIA World Factbook, emerged as a strong global power.
It’s rather remarkable that Biden, who was the architect and champion of many of these failed foreign policies, would deign to label the incumbent U.S. President as an existential security threat when so many foreign policy calamities happened on his watch. President Trump won a free and fair presidential election by offering American voters a stark change in direction from the Obama/Biden globalist policies and the established D.C. national security and crony capitalist order. He promised to avoid unnecessary future wars, curb illegal immigration, have recalcitrant international allies pay their fair share for common defense, redo trade deals that harm American businesses and consumers, and serve as Free World leader in protecting American interests and people. It is how a constitutional republic should operate. And if President Trump poses an existential threat to anyone or anything it’s to the Obama/Biden way of doing things, not to U.S. national security.
The United States is a global power with global interests and global responsibilities. America needs a strategy to match. In particular, the government must safeguard the nation’s three top vital interests—defense of the homeland, stability in critical regions, and preservation of the right of states to freely transit the global commons. All three goals are best served by effective U.S. actions in three crucially important parts of the world—the Indo–Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East.
In December 2017, the Trump Administration released its National Security Strategy (NSS).
The strategy is well suited to the task of protecting the nation’s vital interests. Further, rather than just a document for public consumption, the Administration has sought to follow the strategy like a blueprint for keeping the U.S. free, safe, and prosperous in a changing and challenging world. The United States cannot eliminate every bad actor, right every wrong, or correct every perceived injustice in the world. That is impossible. But the United States can contribute to building a world order in which the rule of law, the integrity of national borders, democratic capitalism, freedom of the seas, democratic self-government, human rights, and international trade prevail, not as guaranteed outcomes but as opportunities.
This column was originally published at StandUpAmericaUS.
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
