Donald Trump set to super-size military, says Rudy Giuliani, by Cameron Stewart.
The frontrunner to become Donald Trump’s secretary of state has revealed the US president-elect is committed to building a “gigantic” military force to thwart China’s ambitions in the Pacific.
Rudy Giuliani, the New York mayor during the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and who is assisting Mr Trump’s transition to the White House, said yesterday the military expansion would be designed to allow the US to fight a “two-ocean war’’.
The hawkish comments are a strong sign the Trump administration will not neglect the Asia-Pacific region, and follow the president-elect’s criticisms during the election campaign that America’s NATO allies and Japan were not pulling their weight.
“We (will) take our military up to 550,000 troops (instead of) going to 420,000,’’ Mr Giuliani told global business leaders in Washington. “We (will) take our navy up to 350 ships, (instead of) going to 247.
“At 350, China can’t match us in the Pacific. At 247 ships, we can’t fight a two-ocean war; we gave up the Pacific. If you face them with a military that is modern, gigantic, overwhelming and unbelievably good at conventional and asymmetric warfare, they may challenge it, but I doubt it.” …
Reagan took the US Navy up to 600 ships, ramping up US defense spending a point or two to 6% of GDP. The Soviet Union tried to counter with their own arms build up, but spent about 30% of their much smaller GDP on defense in doing so — which broke their economy and their will.
Obama ran the US military down, despite his five wars currently underway:
US military spending, which has fallen to about $US550 billion and is on track to fall to the lowest share of US GDP since World War II. …
Speaking with remarkable candour for a potential secretary of state, Mr Giuliani said he wanted China to be an economic competitor, but not a military one. “They are a first world and third world country combined,” he said. …
“Russia thinks it’s a military competitor; it really isn’t; it’s our unwillingness under Obama to even threaten the use of our military.”
hat-tip Stephen Neil
