Donald Trump spoke at length today about national security at an event in Philadelphia, offering his most detailed plan yet to defeat ISIS and defeat it fast.
Trump said, if he took office, he would demand the Pentagon give him “a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS” within 30 days.
Damn. That’s demanding action.
Trump’s plan would likely be a continuation of what the U.S. is already doing, with airstrikes and ground support, although maybe more aggressive.
Guess it depends on what the generals cook up in one month.
A retired Army general on CNN said that that arbitrary time frame was pretty stupid.
“I had to ask myself, what the hell does he think we’ve been trying to do for the last 14 years in terms of al Qaeda?” Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling told Anderson Cooper on AC360 on Tuesday.
“It shows a complete lack of understanding of the threat and the ways to fight it,” Hertling said. “It’s a sophomoric approach to elements of national security policy because if he’s just calling in the military, he’s missing the point that there are several other elements of national security that will help defeat ISIS.”
Trump, though, in his speech, ensured that his plan to defeat ISIS, whenever it is implemented and whatever it is, would not only crush the terrorist organization, but leave the Middle East better than it is right now.
“Unlike my opponent, my foreign policy will emphasize diplomacy, not destruction. Hillary Clinton’s legacy in Iraq, Libya, Syria has produced only turmoil and suffering and death. Her destructive policies have displaced millions of people, then she has invited these refugees into the West with no plan to screen them.”
“In a Trump administration, our actions in the Middle East will be tempered by realism. The current strategy of toppling regimes with no plan for what to do the day after only produces power vacuums that are filled simply by terrorists.”
Sick, man. Hope that works.
[Via The Washington Post]