![]() After all, it was the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat. When the “ mother of all bombs” was dropped on ISIS caves in Afghanistan on April 13, killing dozens of militants, most people focused on the enormity of the weapon. “You can blow stuff up … but where do things end?”įor a president who came into office with an “America first” worldview, proclaiming on the White House website that the US does “not go abroad in search of enemies,” he has given the Pentagon free rein to go out and search - and destroy. “Conflict is a lot more complex” than it seems, according to former Navy Undersecretary Janine Davidson. That's potentially good news for generals who felt hamstrung by the Obama administration, but it carries clear risks for both Trump and the US. ![]() The Pentagon now does not require the president’s sign-off when military commanders believe an action is necessary. Trump’s hands-off approach - allowing battlefield commanders to take daily decisions affecting US foreign policy and national security - is a major shift in the American way of war. Why? Because he doesn’t feel like his approvals are needed - and because his predecessor micromanaged the Pentagon to a dangerous degree. What all of these military operations have in common is that none of them required approval from the commander in chief, Donald Trump. In Trump’s first months in office, the US conducted drone strikes in Yemen and a special operations raid where a Navy SEAL was killed, dropped the “ mother of all bombs” in Afghanistan, and on Thursday struck Assad’s forces in Syria. The US military is making many life-or-death decisions without input from the person who matters most: the president of the United States.
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