Elbridge Colby served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development in the Trump administration and is credited with shifting U.S. defense strategy from its focus on the global War on Terror and “small wars” to great power competition, especially in Asia, as outlined in the January 2018 National Defense Strategy. Should Trump regain the White House, Colby will likely play a major role in shaping, if not leading, the country’s national security policy. A Thinly Stretched American Military Recently, writing in the Financial Times, Colby, in advance of the much-heralded 75th anniversary of NATO, poured cold water on the idea promoted by the Biden administration and other NATO leaders that Russia’s war in Ukraine is the greatest threat to global peace and stability and that the U.S. should continue to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe, while simultaneously dealing with China’s challenge in the western Pacific. Colby calls this unrealistic, and recommends instead strategic prioritization by “focusing resources and willpower where America’s most important interests are endangered — Asia.” (READ MORE: NATO Reporters Want Biden Out) The United States, Colby writes, simply does not have a military large enough to fight two large wars in Europe and Asia. We are currently spread too thin, and if fighting broke out simultaneously with Russia and China our vulnerabilities would be exposed because there are “not enough resources to go around.” Part of being strategic is choosing which threat to prioritize and distributing resources accordingly. We haven’t done that. The so-called “pivot” to Asia under Obama was little more than rhetoric. Trump started to move in that direction in the second half of his presidency by deploying more resources to Asia, identifying China as the principal global threat, and pushing our NATO allies to pony up more for Europe’s defense. Russia was quiescent when Trump was president. Its aggression against Ukraine occurred in 2014 when Obama was president, and in 2022, when Biden was president. Our Interests in Asia Are Greater Than Those in Europe The Biden administration has no strategy. It is not prioritizing threats. It portrays Russia’s war against Ukraine as akin to Hitler’s attack on Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. At his NATO press conference, the president reiterated that if Putin wins in Ukraine, Poland or some other NATO country will be next on his list, even though Russia has, at great cost, gained tenuous control of only about 18 percent of Ukraine’s territory. Colby does not recommend abandoning Europe, but he does write that our allies in Europe must “take primary responsibility for their own defence.” “European rearmament,” he states, “is the way” to defend Europe while shifting U.S. resources to Asia to deal with the greater threat. That has been Trump’s position all along. (READ MORE: Appeasement Didn’t Bear Good Fruit in the Middle East) NATO must be reformed, Colby says, with Europe taking the lead in providing the resources and manpower for its defense. The United States, Colby recommends, “must withhold forces from Europe that may be needed for Asia, even in the event of Russia attacking first … because if the US ties down or loses key forces for a defence of Taiwan in a less significant European fight, it is asking for China to attack.” Colby recognizes two uncomfortable but pertinent facts: Our resources are not unlimited and we have greater interests at stake in Asia than in Europe. The unipolar moment for the United States is over. This isn’t “weakness” or “appeasement” or “isolationism.” It is, instead, realism. It was Walter Lippmann who long ago defined an effective foreign policy as one that aligns commitments with resources. As Colby notes, “we are not in a world of perfect solutions. Those who pretend that we are may be the most dangerous of all. Better to face reality and implement strategies for it. That’s the only responsible course.” Just so. READ MORE: US Navy Works to Deter Full-Scale War The post Former Trump Defense Official Makes the Case for Prioritizing Asia Over Europe appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

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