By Theodore Shoebat
A recent report reveals that General Jim Mattis objected to the plan deploying thousands of troops to the US border, but was overruled by Trump. As we read in a report from the New York Times:
Administration officials said Mr. Mattis was against the border mission, but he was overruled by Mr. Trump, the commander in chief.
Multiple Pentagon officials have privately said deploying troops to the southwest border will hurt “readiness” — military jargon for having enough forces trained and ready to fight. It also runs contrary to the Pentagon’s renewed emphasis on “lethality,” a military buzzword that refers to the ability to quickly overpower enemies.
“You’ve got 5,000 troops that are trained and ready, and we’re using them for something other than their intended mission,” said Todd Harrison, the director of defense budget analysis with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and a close watcher of the Pentagon’s budget.
“And when they get back,” Mr. Harrison said, “they will have not been doing their normal training, and won’t be ready if something happens.”
Committing troops to one operation means fewer forces for another. Compared with how many troops the United States has stationed in Syria (2,000), in Afghanistan (14,000) and in Iraq (5,000), the number of soldiers sent to Texas, Arizona and California will be a significant slice of all troops deployed worldwide.