Division in the Heart of the Pentagon: Debate Over the American Defense Plan

SadaNews - The Washington Post reported that there are disagreements among Pentagon officials regarding the new American defense strategy, with some considering it "short-sighted and ineffective."

The newspaper quoted individuals working on the strategy as saying: "They described a growing sense of frustration towards a plan they see as narrow-minded and potentially irrelevant, especially given the highly personal and sometimes contradictory approach the president takes in foreign policy."

It added: "Military officials believe that the new strategy overly focuses on domestic threats at the expense of global challenges, and they are particularly concerned that the scope of competition with China is being narrowed to just the Taiwan issue, while Beijing, in their view, is undergoing extensive military modernization."

According to two knowledgeable sources, the discourse of the new strategy has a "more partisan character" and accuses former President Joe Biden's administration of weakening the military.

The newspaper's sources also indicated concerns regarding the U.S. Secretary of Defense's plan to restructure the armed forces, with expected cuts affecting "800 generals and admirals overseeing the U.S. armed forces."

It noted that the proportion of women among the dismissed personnel so far is "disproportionately high," raising further questions among critics of the new defense strategy.

It had previously been announced that the Secretary of Defense ordered the urgent convening of hundreds of senior military leaders for a meeting in Virginia without disclosing the subject of the meeting.