TRUMP’S ANTI-TERROR PLAN: Beyond his call for “extreme vetting,” there was a lot to chew over in Donald Trump’s scripted speech yesterday of his plan to defeat the Islamic State and other terrorists. Trump called for “ideological warfare” to dismantle and discredit Islamic terrorism. “Just as we won, just as we won the Cold War in part by exposing the evils of communism and the virtues of free markets, so too must we take on the ideology of radical Islam.”
Trump identified immigration as the biggest threat to the United States, arguing the “common thread” linking the major Islamic terror attacks on U.S. soil is that “they have involved immigrants or the children of immigrants.” As Gabby Morrongiello writes, Trump’s answer is “extreme vetting” and a temporarily suspension of immigration from regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism.”
The centerpiece of his plan is a promise to establish a commission on radical Islam “to identify the warning signs of radicalization, and to expose the networks in our society that support radicalization” as well as to “develop new protocols for local police officers, federal investigators, and immigration screeners.”
Other highlights of the Trump plan closely mirrored the current strategy being pursued by the Obama administration, including:
— Aggressively pursuing joint and coalition military operations to destroy ISIS
— Partnering with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egypt’s President Sisi
— Finding common ground with Russia
— Working closely with NATO
— Getting international cooperation to cut off ISIS funding,
— Expanding intelligence sharing
— Using cyber warfare to disrupt and disable ISIS propaganda and recruiting
Presumably Trump has ideas about how to do this better, but he wasn’t providing details, “my administration will not telegram exact military plans and what they are,” he explained. In a campaign appearance that preceded Trump by a few minutes, Hillary Clinton said, “He says he won’t tell anyone what he’ll do because he wants to keep his plan quote ‘secret.’ And then it turns out the secret is he has no plan.”
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GITMO EXODUS: On the same day Trump promised to keep the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay open, and the military commissions there operating, the Pentagon announced the biggest mass transfer of Gitmo detainees of President Obama’s tenure. The race to empty Gitmo saw 15 prisoners dispatched to the United Arab Emirates, reducing the population at Guantánamo to 61 men.
Republicans on Capitol Hill blasted the move as one that put Americans’ safety at risk. “In its race to close Gitmo, the Obama administration is doubling down on policies that put American lives at risk,” Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “Too many have already died at the hands of former detainees. I fear we will be dealing with the consequences of this recklessness for years to come.”
ASK YOUR MOTHER (RUSSIA): The State Department refused to comment on reports that the U.S. and Russia were planning a joint operation in Aleppo, Syria, Pete Kasperowicz writes. “I would refer you to the Russians to speak to what their defense minister said,” State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in Washington. “The United States, we have nothing to announce.” She spoke just hours after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted in the Russian press saying that the U.S. and Russia were close to launching a joint operation to defeat terrorists in Syria.
It also came as Donald Trump appeared to indirectly endorse the idea. In his counter-terrorism speech, he said, “I also believe that we could find common ground with Russia in a fight against ISIS. Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”
Meanwhile Russia’s defense ministry has announced that Russian warplanes are now using an airbase in Iran to launch airstrikes against what it says are Islamic State targets in Syria. The AP calls it “a major development” in the Syrian civil war. “Russia has never used the territory of another country in the Middle East for its operations inside Syria, where it has been carrying out an aerial campaign in support of President Bashar Assad’s government for nearly a year.”
CARTER HAILS SUCCESS: The Pentagon says its strategy of working with capable and motivated local forces to defeat the Islamic State is paying off. Defense Secretary Ash Carter yesterday issued a statement calling the recapture of the strategic northern Syrian city of Manbij by U.S.-backed fighters “another significant milestone in the campaign to deal ISIL a lasting defeat.”
TO THE VICTOR GOES THE OIL: One of Trump’s most original arguments in his big speech yesterday was his defense of his position that the U.S. should have seized Iraq’s oil reserves essentially as payment for liberating the country from Saddam Hussein. “If we had controlled the oil like I said we should, we could have prevented the rise of ISIS in Iraq, both by cutting off a major source of funding and through the presence of U.S. forces necessary to safeguard the oil and vital infrastructure products necessary for us to have the oil.” Trump said he would have used the money from selling Iraq’s oil to take care of the wounded soldiers and families of those who died in the war. “In the old days, when we won a war,” Trump lamented, “to the victor belonged the spoils.”
On CNN, former Supreme NATO commander retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a Clinton supporter, dismissed the notion as delusional, “The idea that we would leave U.S. troops there to guard oil wells and oil refineries and pipelines and take their oil is — it’s crazy. MacArthur did not do that. General MacArthur didn’t do that. General Patton wouldn’t have done that,” Clark said. Trump had cited MacArthur and Patton in his speech but not to buttress his “keep the oil” argument.
WELCOME REFUGEES: As Trump accused Clinton yesterday of wanting to be “America’s Angela Merkel” by opening the floodgates to refugees from Syria and other countries, Paul Bedard reports that the U.S. has accepted more Syrian refugees than the entire European Union, welcoming 8,000 of the planned 10,000 this year. While EU members have promised to take in a combined 160,000 refugees, they have actually accepted only a small fraction: about 6,000.
Independent candidate Evan McMullin said coming to the U.S. as a refugee is the last thing a terrorist would do. “I spent over 10 years in the CIA serving overseas — serving in the Middle East. And let me tell you, if you’re a terrorist and you wanna come in the U.S.A., the worst possible way to try to do it is as a refugee,” McMullin said during an interview on Fox News’ “Special Report” Monday night. “You’ll go through a year and a half to two years of vetting.”
The former House Republican Conference policy adviser said members of the Islamic State or any other terrorist group would be “much better off just coming through the Visa Waiver Program from Europe or just walking across the border in Mexico.”
TRUMP PUTS TROOPS IN DANGER: Vice President Joe Biden, while campaigning with Clinton in Pennsylvania, said Trump’s comments that Obama founded the Islamic State actually put U.S. troops serving in the region in more danger, T. Becket Adams writes. “If my son were still in Iraq,” Biden said Monday, “and I say to all those who are there, the threat to their life has gone up a couple clicks. It has gone up a couple clicks.”
Even Sen. Jeff Sessions, one of Trump’s top national security advisers, criticized Trump for the remarks, Kelly Cohen writes. “Everybody knows that Clinton and Obama didn’t meet to plot the foundation of ISIS,” Sessions said. “So yeah, [Trump] stirred things up with that comment. You can say it was smart and not smart.”
Reading from a teleprompter, Trump gave a more nuanced version of the argument, one that tracks with long-standing criticism of Obama that he failed to find a way to leave a small force of U.S. troops in Iraq after 2011. “The failure to establish a new status of forces agreement in Iraq and the election-driven timetable for withdrawal surrendered our gains in that country and led directly to the rise of ISIS without question,” Trump said. The Washington Post and ProPublica make an attempt to piece together what actually happened back at the time here.
Meanwhile, the mud slinging also went the other way, with Trump saying that Clinton “lacks the mental and physical stamina” to defeat the Islamic State, Gabby Morrongiello reports.
BACKTRACKING: Trump’s spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson, was forced to backtrack Monday on comments she made over the weekend that Obama launched the war in Afghanistan, which actually began under President George W. Bush. She told the Texas Tribune that she “obviously” meant Syria, not Afghanistan, and was distracted by an echoing earpiece, Kelly Cohen reports.
Gabby Morrongiello compiled a list of some of Pierson’s more interesting on-air assertions. Sometimes she comes clean, but usually she blames technology or the media. Read them here.
HOSPITAL BOMBED IN YEMEN: A hospital supported by the international medical organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in northwestern Yemen was hit by an airstrike yesterday, according to a release from the humanitarian group. Reports says at least 15 people were killed. Doctors Without Borders says, “The GPS coordinates of the hospital were repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition, and its location was well- known.” It’s the fourth time in 12 months that a Doctors Without Borders facility has been hit by an airstrike. On Saturday, Saudi airstrikes killed at least 19 people, mostly children, in a residential area and a school in northern Yemen.
REAPER MADNESS: General Atomics – Aeronautical Systems received a $371 million contract to produce 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones. The MQ-9 is a larger version of the MQ-1 Predator and can carry weapons.
MILK DUD?: Navy Secretary Ray Mabus today will name two ships in separate ceremonies in California: a destroyer after Medal of Honor recipient and Marine John Basilone and an oiler after civil rights icon Harvey Milk.
But everyone isn’t happy with Mabus’ picks. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said naming a ship after Milk puts politics ahead of the Navy’s legacy and tradition. “There are plenty of names out there to pick from, but Ray Mabus makes every decision with politics in his mind first and foremost, and that’s a real disservice to men and women of the U.S. Navy and the service’s legacy.”
THE RUNDOWN
Defense News: Report Questions Necessity of Nuclear Weapons in Europe
Washington Post: He was one of the most respected intel officers of his generation. Now he’s leading ‘Lock her up’ chants.
Military.com: Two Pilots Eject before Military Jet Crashes in Texas
UPI: Lockheed Martin gets $112 million Aegis modernization contract modification
USNI News: LCS Detroit Delivers to Navy
UPI: B-52 successfully drops JASSM from internal bay for first time
War on the Rocks: Britain is committed to defeating ISIL and staying robust on defense
Defense News: S. Korea’s Park Defends Planned THAAD Missile Shield
Military.com: Russia ‘Close’ to Joining Forces with US on Aleppo: Minister
Wall Street Journal: Jordan Struggles With Islamic Extremism at Home
Associated Press: ‘Islam for dummies’: IS recruits have poor grasp of faith
Washington Post: These are the elite Taliban forces fighting for a province once held by U.S. troops
Marine Corps Times: The Marines are conducting a test that could drastically change how combat troops deploy
Task and Purpose: Bergdahl’s Lawyers Want Gen Abrams Off The Case For Burning Evidence
Fox News: Army veteran arrested for hanging US flag upside down in protest
Calendar
THURSDAY | AUGUST 18
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. CSIS hosts Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander of U.S. Naval Air Forces in the Pacific Fleet, to discuss the future of naval aviation. csis.org
THURSDAY | AUGUST 25
10 a.m. 1616 Rhode Island Ave. NW. Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, speaks at CSIS about the future of military innovation and joint capabilities. csis.org
