Defense Secretary Mark Esper has made much of his vision for the US military posture overseas involving substantial buildups around China and Russia for great power competitions. This was understood to involve troop cuts at some of the existing US deployments.
That would hurt some existing commanders, costing them troops, funding, and general priority within the Pentagon. Esper isn’t the first one to imagine an Asia pivot, nor the first to see the plans foiled by other priorities.
On Thursday, AFRICOM commander Gen. Stephen Townsend fired the first shot against the pivot, claiming that Iran is plotting to attack Americans in Africa. Clearly, he’s arguing against losing troops right now, in the face of an Iran threat.
Gen. Frank McKenzie from CENTCOM followed through on Friday, saying that there is an increase in Iranian activity in Afghanistan, and that he’s “very concerned about that.”
Afghanistan and Africa clearly aren’t Iranian priorities by any stretch of the imagination. But both were presented as likely sources for troops to send to the China area, but so long as Iran is a top priority, it also becomes a prime excuse of avoiding redeployment.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/rising-numbers-us-troops-iraq-traumatic-brain-injuries/5702443
Troop cuts might happen naturally if Iran is this successful while giving a warning.
US soldiers might want to memorize this list of symptoms while pondering who and what they’ve been fighting for.
This infighting in the USA among the vast number of generals in the “greatest fighting force the world has ever known” which cannot win any wars at all is disgusting. Try a little cooperation,negotiations, peace!!! and instead of Pompass see if the USA can find among its citizens a few people who can actually be diplomatic. Leave other countries alone. Don’t interfere.
Without an enemy there would be no way to justify a trillion dollars a year “defense” budget while millions of Americans go without healthcare and eat from food banks.