Washington – President Donald Trump and Minister of Defense Pete Hegset Plan to solve Hundreds of US military officials Personally Tuesday After the Pentagon suddenly asked the best commanders from around the world to convene on the basis in Virginia, without publicly revealing the reason.
The collection on the basis of the Marine Corps in Quantico near Washington caused intensive speculations about the purpose and cost of calling such a large number of generals and admirals in one place, many of them are located in more than a dozen countries that include conflicts in the Middle East and other places.
Meetings between leading military and civilian leaders are not new. But experts say that the scale of the meeting, the haste with which it was called, and the mystery of the surrounding him is especially unusual.
“The idea that the secretary is going to talk with the generals and will give them his vision of the department management – and also, perhaps for strategy and organization, is completely reasonable,” said Mark Kantian, senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired marine corner.
“What is interested in why this is in such a short notice, why is it personally and what else can be involved,” he said.
Uncertainty arises due to the fact that the country is faced with the potential Closing the government This week and, like a hegset who beat home a focus on mortality and what he calls the “spirit of a warrior”, took several unusual and inexplicable actions, including Reductions orders the number of general officers and Dismissal of other leading military leadersField
News about Suddenly planned meeting On Thursday, the lead representative of the Pentagon Sean Parnell confirmed this, but refused to publish additional information.
Trump did not seem to know about this when he was asked by journalists during the oval cabinet later on the same day. The president said that he “will be there if they want me, but why is it so important?”
On Sunday, the White House official said that Trump would also speak at the meeting. President NBC News said The fact that he and Hegset will “talk about how well we do a militarily, we are talking about being in great shape, talking about many good, positive things.”
Last week, Vice President JD Vance claimed that the media turned him into a “big story” and that “it is not particularly unusual that the generals who report the hegset are going to talk to him.
Italian adm. Giuseppe Kavo Dragrona, chairman of the NATO military committee, called this meeting unusual and told reporters on Saturday after a meeting in NATO in Riga, Latvia, that “as for my 49 years of service, I have never seen this before.”
The lack of detailed information prompted many in Washington to reflect on the focus of the meeting. Be that as it may, Michael O'Khanlon from the Bruckings Institute said that he suspects that there will be a dramatic element that can be “as important as any significant element”.
“Only the scale makes you think about what significant interaction can happen,” said O'Khanlon, Director of Bruckings's Foreign Policy. “And therefore, he hits more theatrical or trying to impose than trying to exchange glances.”
Brian Clark, senior researcher and director of the Center for Protective Concepts and Technologies at the Hudson Institute, said that he expects the meeting to be concentrated on changing the Trump administration in defense policy. It is expected that the American military will be less focused on Europe and Asia and more in the Northern Hemisphere, a change that breaks with the decades of the precedent, he said.
Hegset defended the role of the military in Border protection with USdeployment in American cities as part Trump law enforcement fairy talesAnd execution Boats on boats in the Caribbean What the administration says that they are aimed at drug traders.
“I think they are trying to establish a tone, establish a context so that these generals and admirals say that the strategy that we have is very different from what you are used to – we need that you are all on board with it,” Clark said.
According to Clark, a video tie around the world is difficult, because leaders are spreading in time zones. Having forced them to attend the meeting personally, he will drill a point of view home.
“This is a way to demonstrate that this is important,” Clark said.
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The author of the Associated Press Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
