Analyst:

Trump’s generals seek to maintain global hegemony at all costs

Rasa - Real power in the US resides in the military generals appointed by President Donald Trump, and they all share the view that the US "must maintain its global hegemony at all costs," says a foreign policy expert.

News ID: 431569

Date: 09 August 2017 - 23:34

RNA - US Defense Secretary James Mattis, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are three retired generals hand-picked by Trump that “form a triumvirate at the seat of power,” said Professor Dennis Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California.

The escalating tensions between the US and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests highlights that Washington cannot tolerate a nuclear rival on the Korean Peninsula, Etler said.

“While the fiery rhetoric by both sides amounts to no more than posturing, it still contributes to an increasingly tense atmosphere and many fear it could lead to dire consequences,” Etler said in an interview on Wednesday.

“But a look behind the scenes shows a somewhat different picture. On the US side, real power now resides in a triumvirate of military henchmen, Mattis at the helm of the Defense (aka War Department), McMaster as National Security Adviser and Kelly as chief of staff. These three retired Generals form a triumvirate at the seat of power,” he argued.

“As top members of the military industrial complex and the national security state, they share the same perspective; maintain US global hegemony at all costs.”

Trump on Wednesday boasted about the strength of the US nuclear arsenal, saying the country’s nuclear weapons are “more powerful than ever,” in a fresh warning to North Korea.

In a series of tweets, Trump said his first presidential order was to modernize the US nuclear arsenal, but said he hoped it would never be used.

"My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before," Trump wrote on Twitter from New Jersey, where he is on vacation for two weeks.

Trump’s comments came a day after he warned North Korea that any threat to the United States would be met with "fire and fury".

Just hours after Trump made the threat, North Korea said it is considering plans for a missile strike on the US Pacific territory of Guam.

Source: Press TV

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