President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for US defence secretary James Matteo and CIA director Mike Pompeo have portrayed multiple challenges facing the United States, from an aggressive Russia to a “disruptive” Iran to a China that he said is creating “real tensions”.
Matteo has accused Russia of trying to break up NATO and said China was destroying trust with its neighbours.
Asked during a confirmation hearing how he viewed the strains facing the post-war world order, Mattis replied: “I think it’s under the biggest attack since World War II, sir, and that’s from Russia, from terrorist groups, and with what China is doing in the South China Sea.”
“Russia is raising grave concerns on several fronts and China is shredding trust along its periphery,” Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
China’s military build-up in the South China Sea has raised tensions with regional neighbours and with the United States, and US lawmakers are alarmed by Putin’s military actions in Syria, Crimea and elsewhere.
“Right now, the most important thing is that we recognise the reality of what we deal with with Mr Putin, and we recognise that he is trying to break the North Atlantic (Treaty Organisation, Nato) alliance,” Mattis said.
His stance on Russia stands in contrast to that of Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin’s leadership qualities and advocated closer ties with Moscow.
“History is not a straightjacket ... but we have a long list of times that we have tried to engage positively with Russia; we have a relatively short list of successes in that regard,” Mattis said.
With regard to China, Mattis elaborated in written testimony that the United States must try to engage and collaborate with China where possible, “but also be prepared to confront inappropriate behaviour if China chooses to act contrary to our interests”.
A colourful commander famed for his pugnacious aphorisms, Mattis earned the nickname “Mad Dog” with his battle-hardened swagger and the sort of blunt language Marines are famous for.
He has been quoted as saying: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”
The tough-talking warfighter is popular among politicians and troops alike, but his nomination raised some eyebrows because he only hung up his uniform in 2013.
Senators were expected to probe Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general on the importance of civilian control of the military.
A cornerstone of US democracy is that civilians, not troops, must have control of the military, and the commander-in-chief is the president.
US law prohibits officers from serving as defence secretary for seven years after leaving active duty.
The 66-year-old Washington state native is expected to receive a special congressional waiver to serve in the post – only granted once before, for the famous World War II General George Marshall who served under President Harry Truman from 1950-1951.
Senior Republican lawmaker Senator John McCain, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that he “could not be happier” about Mattis’s nomination.
“Current law would bar him from serving as secretary of defence for three more years,” McCain said. “While I support retaining that law, I also believe that our nation needs General Mattis’s service more than ever.”
Mattis would replace technocrat Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama’s fourth Pentagon chief.
Meanwhile, Trump’s nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Pompeo, diverged from Trump’s stated aim of seeking closer ties with Russia, saying that Russia is “asserting itself aggressively” by invading and occupying Ukraine, threatening Europe, and “doing nearly nothing” to destroy the Islamic State.
Pompeo, a Republican member of the House of Representatives and a former US Army officer, was speaking during his confirmation hearing in the US Senate, at a time when Trump, a Republican who takes office on January 20, has openly feuded with US intelligence agencies.
For weeks, the president-elect questioned the intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia used hacking and other tactics to try to tilt the 2016 presidential election in his favour.
Trump said on Wednesday that Russia was behind the hacking but that other countries were hacking the United States as well.
Asked about the hacking, Pompeo said he was very clear about what he called an “aggressive action” ordered by the Russian leadership, and accepted the US intelligence report on the hacking as sound.
Trump this week also furiously denounced intelligence officials for what he said were leaks to the media by intelligence agencies of a dossier that makes unverified, salacious allegations about his contacts in Russia.
By contrast, Pompeo voiced strong support for the agency he has been nominated to lead, saying he has seen staff from the CIA “walk through fire”.
Pompeo signaled that he would stand firm if necessary against Trump on the issue of enhanced interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects.
Such techniques are widely regarded as torture and their use has been banned by Congress.
Trump has said he would bring back tactics such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning.
Asked about this, Pompeo said that he would “absolutely not” restart enhanced interrogation techniques by the CIA if asked by the president-elect.
He noted it would take a change in the law for the CIA to use interrogation techniques that go beyond those permitted by the Army, adding he could not imagine that Trump would order the CIA to use illegal methods.
Pompeo, a conservative lawmaker from Kansas who is on the House Intelligence Committee, emphasised that he would be a neutral assessor of challenges and threats.
In opening remarks he said he understood that if confirmed his role would switch from policymaker to provider of information.
Noting that the CIA does not make policy on any country, he added: “It is a policy decision as to what to do with Russia, but it will be essential that the Agency provide policymakers with accurate intelligence and clear-eyed analysis of Russian activities.”
Equally, he said that he would drop the opposition he has had as a lawmaker to the nuclear deal between Iran and major powers.
He said the CIA must be “rigorously fair and objective” in assessing the deal.
He called Iran an “emboldened, disruptive player in the Middle East, fueling tensions” with Sunni allies of the US.
He listed it among the challenges facing the United States along with what he called a “resilient” Islamic State and the fallout from Syria’s long civil war.
Pompeo also named North Korea, which he said had “dangerously accelerated its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities”.
He said China was creating “real tensions” with its activities in the South China Sea and in cyberspace as it flexed its muscles and expanded its military and economic reach.
Mattis: Russia is raising grave concerns on several fronts and China is shredding trust along its periphery.
