An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., on Dec. 17, 2019. (Senior Airman Haley Stevens/U.S. Air Force)
Alex Emmons & Nick Turse, The Intercept: Biden's War Policy Offers Chance for Change — or More of the Same
The administration is reexamining Trump-era rules governing drone strikes and commando missions outside of conventional war zones, along with much else.
LESS THAN two months after taking office, most of President Joe Biden’s national security policy is under review.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is reexamining worldwide troop deployments, and the administration is taking a hard look at global counterterrorism operations. Biden’s team is also reviewing the Trump administration’s peace deal with the Taliban and the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, which Biden, like Barack Obama before him, has promised to close. Meanwhile, a Pentagon task force is reviewing China policy, and the State Department has paused arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates “to make sure that what is being considered is something that advances our strategic objectives, and advances our foreign policy,” Secretary of State Tony Blinken said last month.
The highly publicized reviews indicate Biden’s desire to distance himself from Donald Trump and, to a lesser degree, to distinguish his policies from those of the Obama administration in which he served. They are also a sign that one month into his presidency, many of Biden’s most important national security decisions are still in front of him.
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WNU Editor: It is still too early to know what will be the Biden administration's war/military policy and doctrine. But looking at the people who now run this administration, I am willing to bet that it will be more of a third Obama term when it comes to deciding military and intelligence priorities as defined by this Washington Post analysis .... Obama embraced ‘endless wars.’ Biden probably will, too. (Washington Post).
