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A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 2 March 2017
US general: President Trump’s foreign policy

Russia inadvertently struck US-backed Syrians becoming increasingly risk averse
VIVIAN SALAMA
ROBERT BURNS thought they were striking said he is satisfied that the Associated Press
AP National Security Writer Islamic State positions in U.S. counter-IS strategy WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite his promises of a no-holds-
WASHINGTON (AP) — A the village. But IS fighters as developed during the barred administration, President Donald Trump is tiptoe-
Russian airstrike in north- had withdrawn before the Obama years is working. ing around U.S. military engagements in Afghanistan
ern Syria hit U.S.-backed bombing, and members He said he has forwarded and Iraq, and dialing back the threats of abandoning
Syrian Arab forces who are of what the Americans call up his chain of command a allies. It seems Trump is opting for an increasingly risk-
part of the fight against the Syrian Arab Coalition set of recommendations on averse approach to the world.
the Islamic State group, had moved in, he said. possible adaptions of the Although he vowed an aggressive new Iran posture and
a senior U.S. general said Townsend mentioned strategy, but he would not at one point questioned even basic U.S. policy to China,
Wednesday. the incident to illustrate discuss those. He suggest- Trump has been slow to outline policies to back up the
swagger. He’s curtailed his nerve-rattling rhetoric about
NATO and even his pledges of new cooperation with
Russia.
And in his first speech to a joint session of Congress, he
didn’t even mention the nation’s two long wars or echo
the ritual declarations of American global leadership of
Republican and Democratic presidents past.
“My job is not to represent the world,” Trump said flatly
on Tuesday evening.
“My job is to represent the United States of America. But
we know that America is better off when there is less
conflict — not more.”
Trump referenced his reluctance to embroil the United
States in another war, insisting “we must learn from the
mistakes of the past.” But the overall impression he left
was of a new leader still trying to find his footing on some
of the most vexing foreign policy and international secu-
rity conundrums.
On a night when Trump could have offered a glimpse
of the future for thousands of U.S. troops deployed over-
seas, he said only that he was working on a plan to “de-
molish and destroy” the Islamic State group.
He didn’t reference any goal in Afghanistan, where the
U.S. is helping government forces fight the Taliban. He
didn’t spell out plans for the Iran nuclear deal, which he
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend watches during a tour north of Baghdad, Iraq. A Russian
airstrike in northern Syria hit U.S.-backed Syrian Arab forces who are part of the fight against the once vowed to dismantle, or present a vision for Mid-
Islamic State group, Townsend said Wednesday, March 1, 2017. east peace, which he has indicated could entail an in-
(AP Photo/ Ali Abdul Hassan) dependent Palestinian country — or not.
“He’s still coloring within the Obama lines,” said Aaron
David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Wilson Center
Russia denied responsibility, his point that the battle- ed that no major changes who has advised Republican and Democratic presi-
saying in a written state- field in Syria is exception- were needed and explicitly dents. “He’s reverted to a risk-averse, America First, mus-
ment that it had adhered ally complex. He expressed stated that sending large cular American nationalism. And the ISIS strategy, yet to
to U.S. guidance on avoid- worry that the complexities numbers of U.S. troops, as be revealed, will be Obama-plus.”
ing friendly forces in that could lead to more severe Trump proposed during In one particularly poignant moment, Trump hailed the
area. miscalculations and under- the presidential campaign, service and sacrifice of America’s men and women in
Army Lt. Gen. Stephen cut an anti-IS military cam- would not help. uniform, and their families, praising the widow of U.S.
Townsend, commander of paign that is approaching Earlier this week, Defense Navy Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens.
the U.S.-led coalition forc- a crucial juncture as U.S.- Secretary Jim Mattis sent to As she teared up in the crowd, lamwakers offered their
es in Iraq and Syria, said backed Syrian Arab and the White House his outline biggest cheers of the night. Owens was killed in a raid in
an unspecified number of Kurdish fighters close in on of how the administration Yemen during Trump’s first days as president.
American military advis- Raqqa, the self-declared IS might change the coun- Trump danced entirely around another foreign pol-
ers were a few miles away capital. ter-IS strategy, which relies icy elephant: Russia. While he called for the nation to
from the bombed site, out Townsend did not com- heavily on airstrikes and “find new friends, and to forge new partnerships, where
of immediate danger but ment on relations with Rus- has evolved since Presi- shared interests align,” he provided no update on his oft-
close enough to see their sian other than to mention dent Barack Obama rein- repeated ambition of closer cooperation with Moscow.
Syrian partners get hit. He that a U.S.-Russian military troduced troops into Iraq in It’s a goal Trump has stuck to despite U.S. intelligence
declined to say how many communications link set 2014 after IS fighters swept agencies’ allegations that the Kremlin meddled in the
of the U.S.-backed Syr- up during the Obama ad- across the Syrian border presidential election and the Obama administration’s
ian fighters were killed or ministration was used in and captured large por- allegations that it illegally annexed Ukrainian territory
wounded. response to the airstrikes tions of northern and west- and abetted war crimes in Syria’s civil war.
Townsend said the Ameri- that hit U.S. partner forces ern Iraq. Tuesday’s speech reinforced the need for tighter border
cans sent word that quickly Tuesday. The link was es- Townsend said U.S. intel- security and cracking down on undocumented work-
reached Russian officials, tablished to “deconflict,” ligence estimates put the ers and cartel activity. Trump spoke of his “great wall,”
who acknowledged the or avoid collisions between number of IS fighters in though not who would foot the bill. “The only way to
problem and stopped the U.S. and Russian warplanes Iraq and Syria combined address these problems is to listen to the Mexicans and
bombing. Townsend, who over Syria. at 12,000 to 15,000. That is incorporate what they have to say to make the border
spoke to reporters at the “We used that mechanism down from an estimate of secure,” said Peter Romero, the top American diplomat
Pentagon from his head- and it worked,” Townsend 19,000 to 25,000 in February for Latin America under President Bill Clinton. “It’s in their
quarters in Baghdad, said said. 2016 and 20,000 to 31,000 interest to secure the border, too.”q
he believes the Russians More broadly, the general in 2014.q