Trump's Doctrines of War

Interesting Times

The powers that be within Iran are right now between a rock and a hard place.  On the one hand the clerics and Islamists in that country are losing support from ordinary Iranian citizens by the day.  The only way they can control the restless population is by murder on a grand scale.  Secondly, the United States has demonstrated that it will protect the interests of the US whenever and wherever Iran attempts to do damage to the US. 

We find ourselves intrigued by Trump's doctrines of war.  For a long time he has declared that he wants US military personnel and weaponry brought home.  He wants to turn away from the US being the military policeman of the globe and replace it with a military that is far more narrowly focused upon defending essential US interests.  To this end he has declared he wants to see much of the US military repatriated back to the US.  Secondly, he has made himself obnoxious to some by demanding that allies of the US begin to contribute to their national and international obligations, instead of expecting the US to stump up and pay their defense and western military alliance costs. 

But Trump has also demonstrated that he is not a pacifist--not by a long shot.
  There is a line in the sand--and if nations and/or insurgencies have not troubled themselves to work out where that line is and act as if they don't care, they put themselves at risk.  Iran has just had a lesson on Trump's doctrines of war.  Let's hope it starts to learn with alacrity. 

The interesting question now is how the US will shape up its military presence in Iraq after this latest US destruction of Iranian assets in Iraq.  This is the harder part.  There are plenty of war mongers in the US military and political establishments who will be arguing, "See, we told you.  You must maintain the US as an occupying presence throughout the Middle East (and pretty much everywhere else on the planet)."  Presumably Trump will argue right back with the something along the lines of  "Not at all--as long as the US maintains the ability to make its enemies chew dry husks whenever it is threatened by a hostile power."  If you want to know what that looks like may we suggest you reconsider the fortunes of one Qassem Soleimani.

It is obvious that Trump celebrates and appreciates the US military.  However, his doctrines of war appear to be quite different from previous Presidents since the end of WWII.  This means that we are, indeed, living in interesting times.