[skinster]

US Defence Secretary James Mattis has said competition between great powers, not terrorism, is now the main focus of America's national security.

The US faced "growing threats from revisionist powers as different as China and Russia", he said, unveiling the national defence strategy.

In an apparent reference to Russia, he warned against "threaten[ing] America's experiment in democracy".

"If you challenge us, it will be your longest and worst day," he warned.

America has been gripped by ongoing investigations into alleged collusion between the Trump 2016 election campaign and Russia.

Speaking in Washington, Mr Mattis also appealed to Congress to fund the military adequately and refrain from "indiscriminate and automatic cuts" to the US federal budget.

President Donald Trump is seeking to boost defence spending by 10%, or $54bn (£43bn), in his proposed budget plan for this year, and hopes to recoup that sum through deep cuts elsewhere, including to foreign aid.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42752298

IMHO the US was never fighting terrorism, but committing it. Looks like Trump's admin are carrying on with the neocon fight against Russia. Just like Obama's did after Bush.

[Suntzu]

You fight terrorists with terrorists, not armies. Look to Israel.

[annatar1914]

The focus was never on ''Terrorism'', but on being and then remaining the Global Hegemon. ''Revisionist Powers'' are those that challenge that aspiration of America being or remaining the Global Hegemon. In a way this frank talk is refreshing, and it's not something that most people in the rest of the world didn't already know, especially the governments of China and Russia. This is an age of Imperialism that is coming, resource wars and land grabs, not much different then the 19th and 20th centuries, granted, but made more desperate by the final phase of Capitalism in decline.

Now, this in no way takes away from my thesis of an conversion to Ayn Rand's Objectivist Ideology by President Trump and a faction of the Western Elites, but rather reinforces it. Ayn Rand had no regard for dealing with those peoples who she felt had no real reason and were ''Savages'' without her concepts of the Sate, property rights, totally free market capitalism, and the rule of law. Thus, the non-initiation of force upon much of the rest of the world by an Objectivist ruled America would not apply in many cases.

We may not like what is coming, but being realistic about it and having no illusions is best.