A Pentagon memo outlining the incoming Trump administration’s top “defense priorities” identifies four major problems to be addressed. There’s one glaring item missing from the list: Russia.
Foreign Policy obtained a copy of the memo, which listed these four priorities: defeating ISIS, eliminating budget caps, developing a new cyber strategy, and developing greater efficiency.
To the consternation of senior military officials, who have marked Russia as the No. 1 threat to the United States, it was not included in the memo. Evelyn Farkas, a former senior Pentagon official who worked on Russia policy, said worriedly, “People there now would be pretty concerned to see Russia not on the list.”
As Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress last year: “If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia. If you look at their behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming.” Dunford said the next most dangerous threats to the U.S. were China, North Korea, and ISIS.
The December 1 memo was written by acting Undersecretary of Defense for policy Brian McKeon to his employees; he acknowledged it was culled from his discussion with Mira Ricardel, co-leader of Trump’s Pentagon transition team.
A Trump transition official said the memo is “not comprehensive. For the media to speculate that this list of issues represents all of the president-elect’s priorities is completely erroneous and misleading.”
Trump’s rhetoric regarding Russia has given rise to concerns that he is too chummy with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In July he said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we got together with Russia and knocked the hell out of ISIS?” Trump’s nomination of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state also fed concerns, since Exxon has lobbied against U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow.
As Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said last January, ISIS “can’t inflict mortal damage to the United States. Russia can.” As FP noted, “The Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer earlier this month said that U.S. defense budgets are now focused primarily on countering Moscow.” The head of the U.S. Army in Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, told FP, that the Pentagon and NATO allies have revamped some training exercises so they approximate fighting Russian armed forces.
Farkas concluded that the Pentagon would resist Trump if he ignored the Russian threat. She asserted, “They will find ways to drag their heels. Clearly, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs still has six months to go, and he also agrees that Russia is the No. 1 threat.”