"The greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough." 
- Mitt Romney

"If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will." 
- Maxine Waters

"A strong, unwavering relationship between the U.S. and its allies Japan and South Korea is necessary for the national and economic security of all three countries." 
- Lois Frankel 


I hope POTUS does not consider these provocative war games that are too expensive and a waste of time. Or perhaps that only applies to our forces in Korea.

The US plans on holding its largest European military exercises in 25 years

taskandpurpose.com ยท December 10, 2019
great power competition
December 10, 2019 at 01:33 PM news
A U.S. Marine with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) carries cold weather equipment as he begins to march across the Icelandic terrain October 19, 2018. (U.S. Air Force/Capt. Kylee Ashton)
MONS, Belgium (Reuters) - The United States will send 20,000 troops to Europe next April and May in its biggest military exercises on European soil since the Cold War to underscore Washington's commitment to NATO, a senior allied commander said on Tuesday.
Days after a NATO summit in London at which U.S. President Donald Trump called low-spending European allies "delinquent", U.S. Major General Barre Seguin said the exercises, centered on Germany, will be the largest of their kind in 25 years.
"This really demonstrates transatlantic unity and the U.S. commitment to NATO," Seguin, who oversees allied operations from NATO's military headquarters in Belgium, told Reuters.
Eager to deter Russia from any repeat of its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, the U.S. Army will test its ability to transport the soldiers across the Atlantic to Belgium and the Netherlands and then move quickly east through Germany into Poland and along NATO's eastern flank.
The soldiers will join U.S. personnel stationed across the continent, as well as militaries from 18 NATO allies, to mass around 37,000 troops, before returning to the United States, in an echo of the 'Return of Forces to Germany', or 'REFORGER' maneuvers, of the 1980s.
"We have not demonstrated this ability to rapidly reinforce, from a transatlantic perspective ... for 25 years or so," said Seguin, saying he recalled the REFORGER maneuvers as a boy in school in Germany.
NATO has already sent battalions to the Baltics and Poland to deter potential Russian incursions but now aims to be able to sustain any military operations. European governments are also spending more on making troops combat-ready.
Russia says it has no intention of attacking NATO and accuses the alliance of destabilizing Europe.
While French President Emmanuel Macron has questioned the U.S. commitment to NATO because of Trump's unrelenting criticism of allies, the U.S. president has also confounded Europeans by strengthening America's military presence in Europe.
Seventy years since its Cold War-era founding as an alliance focused on Moscow, Russia's efforts to undermine Western democracies through cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns and covert operations have given NATO a renewed sense of purpose.
The U.S. military has also put countering China and Russia at the center of national defense strategy, shifting priorities after focusing on the fight against Islamist militants.
"We're going into an era of strategic competition in peacetime," Seguin said. "The alliance has reorientated."

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Personal Email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
Phone: 202-573-8647
Web Site:  www.fdd.org
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
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FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.


If you do not read anything else in the 2017 National Security Strategy read this on page 14:

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."