Posted on 12/17/2017 11:23:53 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
President Trump will call for greater border security and better trade deals in a national security strategy document released Monday.
A senior administration official said the strategy outlined in an afternoon Trump speech reflects "principled realism" in addressing global threats.
The strategy document, which administrations must send to Congress, drops President Obama's description of climate change as a national security threat. The National Defense Authorization Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump last week, called climate change a "direct threat" and requires the Pentagon to come up with a list of the top 10 most at-risk bases.
The document does not offer individual country assessments, even in volatile regions such as the Middle East, but describes challenges to the U.S. from "revisionist" nations, "rogue" regimes, and transnational groups.
The strategy has four organizing principles: defense of the territorial U.S., promoting economic prosperity, ensuring peace through strength, and increasing U.S. influence.
Senior administration officials said Sunday the document reflects Trump's public statements and existing policies, and stresses economic strength as essential to national security.
An official told reporters "revisionist" nations seek to change the status quo to the detriment of the U.S., citing China's construction on disputed islands in the South China Sea and Russia's military actions in Georgia and Ukraine.
But officials said the document recognizes areas of potential cooperations with strategic competitors.
China is identified as a "strategic competitor," an official said, but "we do not rule out cooperation in any way and talk throughout the document about areas of cooperation."
Trump's Sunday call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, reportedly regarding a terror plot, is a good example of cooperation, an official said.
Instead of describing climate change as a national security threat, the document will discuss "environmental stewardship," they said.
Unlike a 2002 national security strategy offered by the George W. Bush administration, Trump's document will not discuss pre-emptive military action.
"We talk about our right to defend ourselves but we don't talk about pre-emption," an official said.
The document reflects Trump's previously stated vision of sovereign nations with different cultures pursuing their own interests, officials said.
"We're not imposing our way of life or imposing democracy," one official said.
The document offers an "investment mentality rather than grant giving mentality" where "the goal is to create successful societies that become future trading partners," an official said.
Well since “climate change” has nothing to do with national security, that’s a good thing, I’d say.
What is climate change anyway?
If it goes from 51 degrees to 52 degrees, isn’t that a climate change?
Aren’t there infinite climate changes all the time?
I recall that Sarah Palin had them do some sort of “impact study” regarding climate change in Alaska (ports, seawalls, roads over permafrost, etc.). However, it was to determine the risks of both cold and warm weather.
I don’t think it was a huge study - just a preliminary thing to get some ballpark ideas on what might get impacted. I would imagine that the Feds (and the military) should (and do) have some basic concepts in mind and to adapt to any changes in climate.
The military did a world-wide study of beaches to classify them for various landing craft, etc. in case of the need to either fight a war, or to provide aid, etc. I would think that climate variables were also accounted for.
Imagine that. LOL
That is truly fascinating. All of the things one can take into account when launching an attack. The weather is definitely up there.
Good
Deal with what's real, and ignore what's make-believe.
As it should be.
Stressing the borders are a part of national security... WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT?
The National Defense Authorization Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump last week, called climate change a "direct threat" and requires the Pentagon to come up with a list of the top 10 most at-risk bases
All they did was ever-so-slightly slightly dial back the hysteria. It's still a dumb statement, just not as shrill as adding "and the world is doomed in 3 months if we don't sell carbon credits."
That’s weather, more or less a momentary point on a long, long line of climate. Climate change refers to very long term cycles like ice ages and the warm periods between them- not so much the effect a single cold front or a single winter can have on a small region but the cumulative effect of thousands of years or more of weather, ocean currents, volcanic activity, ash, atmospheric composition, ice accumulation, the tilt of the earth’s axis relative to the sun, slow changes in the shape of earth’s orbit around the sun over very long time periods, solar activity, and probably other factors that we don’t know about, all over a large area.
(Unless you are a lib , and you think momentary weather events indicate imminent doom, climate is supposed to be changless, the sun has less impact than a vote in congress, and climate only goes back to the Little Ice Age [to go back further would disprove their theory that now is as hot as it’s ever been.])
Wow. That was ###ing brilliant.
And really the only comment needed to destroy the entire climate change PC nonsense if only people would READ more.
Thanks.
Never thought about all those variables before.
There's a theory with some empirical support that the orbit of the sun around the planets, although slight since the sun is much more massive, causes a shift in the barycenter of the solar system. That may cause long term climate cycles on earth with various periods in the 100's of years. Each planet-moon(s) system also has its own barycenter including ours although the moon is light since it lacks metals. These barycenters affect relativistic gravity and any relativistic measurements (e.g measuring the speed of photons through the solar system).
I should clarify that the barycenter is a fact, not a theory. The climate cycles are a theory but have considerable empirical support.
The media is all over the idea that he will blast China and Russia...Is that the fake news of the day?? Me thinks....likely....
no, the temperature change you noted is not climate change, but ordinary run of the mill weather.
We have very good records at many locations that are used to calculate an average temperature for every day in the year. Those averages are surprisingly accurate for current comparison. When actual temperatures exceed the average for say 10 years, that would be evidence of climate change.
Those temp records are available from your local NOAA office
We do NOT nor will ever be able to define what the precise temperature of the earth SHOULD BE at any point in time.
Yea! Sanity returns!
Exactly what I voted for!
That’s a good point. There’s no question there are myriad factors. Some may be barycenter cycles (centuries), others solar (decades, centuries, and longer), others cosmic (hundreds of millions of years), and others terrestrial (many timescale, many cycles, many noncycles). For the most part, there’s no way to measure or estimate those influences.
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