They Know And They Think You Should Know

"No one should have any view to the contrary. A president of the United States has to operate on the basis of fact and the current president is not operating on that basis. It's corrosive and destructive and more people need to speak out."

"But ultimately the result will be what people voted for, it will be stable and it is not a threat to the constitutional system."

"Iran has not made the strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons and will continue with that objective, and to develop ballistic missile technology as a delivery system. I'm very worried going forward."

"I'm deeply concerned about the agreement in Afghanistan with the Taliban, not because the Afghan Taliban is a threat to the U.S., but because Afghanistan could return to being a venue, a host, for terrorists."

"What I fear most of all is the Pakistani Taliban radicals gaining control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, which is the greatest fear all of us should have about terrorism."

John Bolton, former UN ambassador, former Trump national security adviser

"The challenge for authoritarian systems is that at a certain point in time, they no longer work because of too much state interference or corruption or other shortcomings. But the bottom line is the Chinese are performing very, very impressively."

"The pandemic originated there but the first country to have a V-shaped recovery was China."

"If you think about the U.S., surely we can keep 2,000 troops in Syria to help our partners who did the fighting on the frontlines? A superpower can sustain those kinds of numbers very easily."

U.S.General David Petaeus, former director, Central Intelligence Agency

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Nothing quite like hearing unadorned, impartial, neutral and objective opinions from the experts in the field of intelligence whose experience has rounded out their world view of the dangers facing the world, both in action and in development. Interestingly enough, Mr. Bolton who had resigned last year from the Trump Administration has a sanguine view of the transition that will take place on January 20; as far as he is concerned it will proceed as it should. On other fronts he is far less optimistic about the situation on the world stage that a new presidency under Joe Biden will be faced with handling.

President of China, Xi Jinping.

SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Trump, in Mr. Bolton's opinion was devoid of a coherent policy on China; leaving the U.S. unprepared at a strategic level which encompasses the economic, political or military levels -- to deal with the "existential question" that China's burgeoning aggressiveness suggests. "It's not too late, but we're behind the curve", he states of China's economic growth rate, based on purloined intellectual property, and forced technology transfers. Not to mention its swift build-up of military capability; nuclear forces, bluewater navy and "extraordinary" cyber warfare capacity.

"None of it is accidental and our response has been ad hoc and haphazard" he ventures speaking alongside retired U.S. general David Petraeus at a virtual State of the Union event by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center in Toronto. What is required, according to General Petraeus, is a "firm but not provocative" policy to emanate from a new administration headed by President Biden involving American allies and partners. "You might describe it as 'engage and influence'", he clarified.

As for whether the world became a safer place when former President Obama signed off on a nuclear deal with Iran, and President Trump's subsequent pulling out of the agreement, General Petraeus' thought is in agreement that the deal made no impact on Iran's ballistic missile program or limited its "malign activity" in the region, simply because nothing to that effect was included in the agreement with Iran, leaving it to interpret what it could and would do on its own initiative, clearly deliberately overlooked to enlist Iran's cooperation in agreeing to the deal.

 

Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president.

Bloomberg | Getty Images

"We can prevent that but obviously that carries a lot of risk", General Petraeus commented on the swift reversal Iran took to, with the Trump administration negating its part of the agreement leaving Iran free rein to restart its nuclear program. The Iranian shift toward China in evading sanctions imposed by the U.S. is a wild card according to the former general: "This is going to have to be handled skillfully to make sure China is on board with whatever the new adminlstration decides to pursue."

 

Mr. Bolton is clearly concerned respecting president-elect Biden's stated determination to re-engage with the Iranian theocracy resulting in "Iran deal 2.0".  A similar concern across the Arab world led to the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, pointed out Mr. Bolton; the Arab countries concluding the threat of Iran to be more important to their well-being than the never-ending Palestinian Issue. "It reflected certain concerns about America's staying power in the region and the belief that growing closer to Israel is in everyone's security interests."

General Petraeus who once commanded coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq has advised both the Trump and incoming Biden administrations to the fact that with its current "constellation" of drones the United States is in position to maintain "sustained and sustainable" commitments, a situation leading to the host nation performing the bulk of the actual fighting and American intelligence and logistics playing a vital supporting role.

As for security in Afghanistan; it has "eroded before our eyes" once the Trump administration clarified its withdrawal desire. "There's no way you're going to get a durable agreement when the enemy knows you want to leave", he pointed out reasonably. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017.

KCNA | Reuters