Gen. Mattis Calls on Biden to End ‘America First’ Policies: It Means ‘America Alone’
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Former Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis is calling on President-elect Joe Biden to kill “America first” policies.
“To achieve defense in depth, simply strengthening the U.S. military is not enough; nor the even more urgent task of strengthening U.S. diplomacy and other civilian elements of national power,” Mattis wrote in a Monday op-ed in Foreign Affairs. “Enhancing national security must start with the fundamental truth that the United States cannot protect itself or its interests without the help of others.”
He also wrote that the U.S. under President Donald Trump had undermined the “foundations” of “international order” as a result of “basic ignorance” of international affairs. “In practice, ‘America first’ has meant ‘America alone,'” Mattis added. “That has damaged the country’s ability to address problems before they reach U.S. territory and has thus compounded the danger emergent threats pose.”
Mattis served as Trump’s first secretary of defense, beginning in 2017 and ending with his resignation in February 2019. His tenure was marred by disagreement with the president on a range of issues, including U.S. participation in NATO as well as the president’s desire to take more a more aggressive stance toward Iran and Syria.
The conflict between Trump and Mattis escalated to such a degree, The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward revealed in September, that Mattis once even contemplated taking “collective action” against the president during tensions with North Korea, allegedly telling then-National Intelligence Director Dan Coats he believed Trump was “dangerous” and “unfit” for office.
In Monday’s op-ed — which also featured bylines from two staffers at the Hoover Institution, along with one from the American Enterpriser Institute — Mattis called on Biden to transform America first policies into something more “cooperative.”
“In January, when President Joe Biden and his national security team begin to reevaluate U.S. foreign policy, we hope they will quickly revise the national security strategy to eliminate ‘America first’ from its contents, restoring in its place the commitment to cooperative security that has served the United States so well for decades,” Mattis wrote. “The best strategy for ensuring safety and prosperity is to buttress American military strength with enhanced civilian tools and a restored network of solid alliances — both necessary to achieving defense in depth. The pandemic should serve as a reminder of what grief ensues when we wait for problems to come to us.”
