Trump is betting on the marines
One of the peculiarities of the personnel policy of the new US president, the inauguration of which is taking place today, was that retired generals of the marine corps James Mattis and John Kelly were chosen as leaders in two key power ministries of the country. Probably Donald Trump, who is often compared to Ronald Reagan, took into account his words: “Many people spend their whole lives looking for the answer to the question: could they change something in the world? The marines do not have this problem. ” About General Mattis, whom the US Congress recently allowed to run for the post of head of the Pentagon (his approval will take place after Trump’s inauguration), was told by NVO, and today we’ll look at another general, the Marine, John Kelly. US security. 10 January 2017, he held a response before members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, making a number of important statements.MAIN "MONSTER" AMERICA
The US Department of Homeland Security, which individual human rights defenders refer to as the main “monster” of America, was formed in 2003 year, on the wave of the consequences of the high-profile 11 attacks of September 2001 by merging more than two dozen different agencies and today is actually America’s main antiterrorist agency ensuring its safety “in all dimensions”.
“The Minister of Homeland Security is the most difficult job in government,” Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, said in his opening remarks at the committee’s hearing on the appointment of General Kelly to head the US Department of Homeland Security. - The ministry employs 240 thousand men and women who are responsible for ensuring the security of our borders, aviation nets and waterways; organization and implementation of our migration regime; protecting cyberspace and preparing our country to deal with disasters. The ministry also plays an important role in the struggle of our state against terrorism. ”
Senator Johnson noted that, based on numerous hearings held by the committee, he made a very disturbing conclusion: “Our borders are not protected, the migration regime is not fully implemented, cyber threats are real and increase, and our infrastructure is not protected adequately". One of the most deserved and experienced marines veterans was chosen to eliminate all these shortcomings.
ALWAYS TALK THE TRUTH
General John Francis Kelly, like General Mattis, is known for his decisive character and direct judgment, which was repeatedly confirmed in practice during his military service, especially during the presidency of Barack Obama, when Kelly actively expressed conflicting lines of the White House on various important issues, for which he ended up in favor with the presidential administration.
“When I first met General Kelly, he was just a good warrior, but over time ... he changed - the words of the American military newspaper Military Times quoted by Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives Duncan Hunter. - It was interesting to observe how the position “everything is fine, we will not say something, we need to fulfill our duties” has changed to “this is wrong, and I have to say about it.”
“I have always believed that the authorities should be told the truth,” said General Kelly himself. “Whether you are a second lieutenant serving under the command of a captain or a lieutenant colonel, or a four-star general working with the administration of the minister of defense and the White House.” Decision makers should have the right basis for making decisions. Otherwise, their decisions may be wrong, and this can be dangerous ... Many will say: "It is easy for him to say - he is a four-star general." But I will tell you: one of the most difficult periods in my life as an officer of the marines was just recently, when I plunged into this relationship between civilians and the military, where the truth is not always welcomed. You literally have heartburn when someone calls you from Washington and says that "it is probably not the best idea - to continue to act in this direction further." But I say in such cases: “Hey, but this is true. I am called to a congressional hearing, and they ask me questions. Am I supposed to lie to them? ”
“I was subordinate to many high-ranking officials of the US government, including our president, and I was never embarrassed to express disagreement with any of them or, if necessary, to make alternative proposals,” the general stressed at recent Senate hearings.
However, such directness did not prevent him from making a good military career. The last post, which Kelly held in active service, was the position of Commander of the Southern Command of the US Armed Forces, in which he was responsible for virtually all issues related to ensuring US national security in the southern direction (Caribbean, Central and South America), including the fight against drug smuggling and weapons. In this position, he had to work closely with various departments and organizations subordinate to the US Department of Homeland Security, so that in the new position, the general would not be such a Varangian for the staff of the latter.
The general deserved even greater respect by becoming the highest-ranking American soldier who lost a child in the uncompromising war on terror: his youngest son, 29-year-old 1 Marine Corps Lieutenant Robert Kelly, died in Afghanistan, near the town of Sangin, Helmand Province, November 9 2010 of the year. By the way, the eldest son of the general, John Francis Kelly, also linked his life with the marines - he served in the Corps as a major, went through two missions to Iraq and trained American soldiers before being sent to Afghanistan, and his daughter, Kathleen Margaret Kelly, After graduation she went to work at the National Military Medical Center. Walter Reed, devoting his life to working with the wounded and disabled.
FROM ROW TO GENERAL
General Kelly, who will be 67 years old in May of this year, has given service in the marines 46 years. He was born in Boston, does not belong to one party. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts and a master’s degree from Georgetown University. He received his primary military education at the IKP Officers' School, and then graduated from the ILC Command and Staff College. He received his higher military education at the National Military College of the National Defense University. In the process of moving up the career ladder, he also received versatile additional vocational education at various courses, programs and seminars, including the CEPTOUN curriculum, which is compulsory for all new generals and admirals, and the training program for the commanding staff of the ground component of the joint operational formation.
He entered the corps service as a future general to an ordinary soldier in 1970, but after he became a sergeant in 1972 (he served in the 2 MP division), left active service and, being enrolled in the reserve, he studied at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. After graduating from the latter, he returned to active service, in his native 2 division of the MP, receiving the rank of 2 lieutenant of marines at the end of the ILC Officer School in Quantico, Virginia.
In 1980 – 1981, Captain Kelly was trained in refresher courses for US Army infantry officers in Fort Benning, and then he served in the headquarters of the IASC in Washington DC for 1984. He then returns to the 2 Division of the MP, where he occupies the post of commander of a rifle company and heavy weapons company (fire weapons), and in August 1986, after being assigned the military rank of Major, he was appointed operational officer of the 3 battalion 4 regiment MT. He then goes to the MP Officer School in Quantico, where from June 1987-th to August 1990 he teaches tactics and holds the position of head of infantry officer training courses, and then enters the ILC Command and Staff College in Quantico. After graduation in 1991, he enters, in the same place, Quantico, at Advanced Courses for Warfare, which he graduated from in 1992 and after being awarded the military rank of “lieutenant colonel” in June of the same year, he was appointed commander of the 1 reconnaissance and patrol battalion 1 division MP.
Lieutenant Colonel Kelly commanded a battalion until May 1994, then went for a new portion of knowledge to the National Military College of the National Defense University, graduating in 1995, receiving in June the position of head of the group of military liaison officers for military legislation The US Congress, in which he served until June 1999, and was promoted to colonel. The next appointment was the position of Special Assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Europe, which Colonel Kelly held from July 1991 to July 2001.
Returning to the troops in the second half of 2001, John Francis Kelly first served as Assistant Chief of Staff of the 2 Division of the MP, and from July 2002 to July of 2004, Assistant Commander of the 1 Division of the MP for operational issues and planning (for us more familiar - the head of the operational department of the division headquarters). Most of his service in the last position he spent in Iraq, where in March 2003, in the advanced base of the division located in the southern Rumaila oil field, was promoted to brigadier general, and next month he headed the Tripoli air force-ground group north of Baghdad to Samarra and Tikrit, among other things, having released seven American prisoners of war in Samarra.
It is noteworthy that in the work “Together with the 1st Marine Corps Division in Iraq, 2003”, prepared by a group of specialists under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Michael Groen and released in 2006 historical Faculty of the University of the International Commission for International Studies in Quantico, it was indicated: production of Colonel D.F. Kelly's brigadier general in the war zone was the first such case since 1951. It was then that the last time in the history of the United States Marine Corps was the production of brigadier generals at the front - in January in Korea, this title was awarded to the assistant commander of the 10th division of the MP Colonel Lewis Barwell Puller (Honor), who is still the most illustrious American marine - awarded the greatest number of state awards.
By the way. Do you know who commanded the 1 division of the MP at the time when John Kelly was the assistant commander of the division that stormed Baghdad, Tikrit, Falluju and other cities and strongholds of the Iraqi army, and a year later ensured order in Anbar province? That's right - Major General Mattis! The next time, John Kelly became the deputy to James Mattis, when he commanded the 1-th MP Expeditionary Corps. General Kelly also maintains very close friendships with another Marine, General Joseph Francis Dunford Jr., who currently holds the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, and before that, the commandant of the Marine Corps. It was Dunford who personally informed Kelly about the death of his son.
From September 2004 to June 2007, Brigadier General Kelly served as Assistant for Military Legislation, Commander of the United States International Police Commission, who was then General Michael William Hagee. In January 2007, Kelly was nominated for the rank of Major General and 11 in September of the same year - approved by the Senate. Prior to this, in July 2007, he was appointed commander of the 1 grouping of the MP Expeditionary Corps, which was sent to Iraq, and on February 9, he headed the Western grouping of the Multinational Forces in Iraq on February 2008. From April to October 2009, he was the deputy commander of this corps, and in October 2009, D.F. Kelly, already a lieutenant general, was appointed commander of the reserve of the ILC - the commander of the ILC grouping within the Northern Command of the US Armed Forces. 21 March 2011, he became the senior military advisor to the Minister of Defense.
ON THE SOUTH FRONTIERS
31 January 2012 of the year, Lieutenant General Kelly was nominated for appointment, and 19 of November 2012 of the year assumed the position of the head of the US Southern Command. Here he literally found himself at the tip of a spear in the fight against Latin American drug lords and transnational organized crime, which Senator Karl Levin, the head of the Senate Committee on the Supreme Court, during the July 19 hearing 2012, where Lieutenant-General Kelly was approved for the aforementioned position, He called the main threat to US security in the area of responsibility of the Southern Command. “Last summer, the president approved a national strategy to combat transnational organized crime (Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime: Addressing Converging Threats to National Security. - V.Shch.),” stressed then Senator Levin. “You, General Kelly, will become one of those who, within the Ministry of Defense, will implement the president’s strategy.”
“Despite the billions of dollars spent, we have not yet been able to deal a decisive blow to the flow of drugs and other contraband materials that swept the region and pave the way to the United States,” noted in turn Senator John McCain. “You have to go beyond traditional thinking and find new, innovative ways to solve the problem of stopping or at least substantially reducing the flow of drugs across our southern border, which is killing Americans, young and old.”
The experience acquired in the position of the head of the Southern Command, General Kelly, seems to have become one of the key reasons that motivated Donald Trump to appoint him head of the Department of Homeland Security. After all, in the new position, threats to America coming from inside the country and from its southern borders will become a priority. By the way, the service df. Kelly at the head of the Southern Command and the security of the southern frontiers of America were, according to American journalists, the main topic of conversation with Donald Trump, which took place on November 20 November 2016 in New Jersey.
“I spoke with the president-elect several times,” General Kelly emphasized at the Senate hearings on 10 in January 2017. “He told me that the ministry and its administration need such leadership, managerial and organizational skills, as well as such strong-willed qualities, to make difficult decisions that I showed during my military career. In particular, he mentioned periods when I commanded troops in Iraq, headed the Southern Command, and served as a senior military advisor to two defense ministers. ”
Such a person, apparently, is needed in order to restore order on the borders of America, especially in the south. “Sources close to Kelly claim that he has more extensive contacts in Latin America than the entire State Department,” writes the Military Times. In particular, he is considered one of the initiators of the 2015 billion-dollar aid program to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador approved at the beginning of 1, which can significantly reduce the crime rate in these countries (the Alliance for Prosperity program).
Indeed, the United States is not Greece or Italy, whose islands are within easy reach of the shores of Asia Minor and North Africa, but if Islamic radicals can get into the continental part of the United States, they can only be by air or on board ocean-going ships. However, the first possibility of the American special services after the terrorist attacks of 2001, in fact, was eliminated, and the second way, although theoretically possible, but by and large is very difficult to implement for a number of reasons. So the main threat comes from their own, home-grown Islamic radicals - US citizens or those who legally obtained a residence permit, etc. So, being the head of the US Southern Command, General Kelly at the parliamentary hearings on the security of the southern borders of America indicated that those jihadist groups from South America and the Caribbean who sent to the Middle East to fight on the side of Islamist radicals and terrorists will eventually return home and nothing will stop them from going and the north - to kill Americans (it is noteworthy that the administration of President Obama was outraged at the time). But today, a more real threat comes from transnational organized crime, attacking the United States from the southern borders and constantly improving its tactics in response to the actions of the forces of law and order.
“Latin America and the Caribbean is a region characterized by both non-traditional security challenges and opportunities for cooperation,” said Lieutenant-General Kelly in a speech at a hearing on his appointment to the position of head of the Southern Command in July 2012. - There is no doubt that there are quite a few threats to our security, not least among them being the smuggling of drugs and their precursors, as well as the growing activity of transnational organized crime syndicates, constantly increasing the sophistication of their actions. In addition, the challenges are cyber threats and security risks in the energy sector, as well as natural disasters, humanitarian crises and other detrimental effects emanating from within this region or from outside. However, each of these challenges is a real opportunity for organizing cooperation with other countries in the region. ”
The main areas in the south, where the main threat to US security comes from, General Kelly called, in particular, Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.
The first is because it has a long border with the United States, which is used to deliver the latest drugs, illegal weapons and illegal migrants to the territory. Moreover, in the opinion of the general, drugs not only represent a threat from the point of view of observance of law and order, but also are a global challenge to the national security of the United States. At the same time, he repeatedly stressed that the underground tunnels dug by Mexican drug cartels under the border between the USA and Mexico and often used by them “train mules” allow not only to smuggle drugs, weapons and various goods (it is noteworthy that civilian weapons go in the opposite direction - from the States to Mexico and on to their numerous buyers), but they can also be used to transfer terrorists and their weapons to the United States, including ssovogo defeat. “Our society has a tendency to view security in the Western Hemisphere as a given until we are faced with a clear and unpleasant crisis,” Kelly pointed out in a note prepared for hearing in the Senate Committee on the Armed Forces in the spring of 2015. “I think this is a mistake.” Ways laid by smugglers from drug cartels and criminal syndicates operating in Latin America look very attractive to international terrorists, especially the "Islamic State" (prohibited in Russia), the general stressed then, referring to numerous intercepted reports from representatives of the latter, in which contained instructions on how to search for "entry into the United States across the southern border." Probably, this point of view was taken into account by Donald Trump, when he proposed to build a protective wall along the American-Mexican border, as well as to tighten policies towards illegal immigrants who are torn or have already fallen into the United States.
However, to eliminate the aforementioned threat, the wall will not be enough - tunnels will also be dug under it, as smugglers and terrorists do in the case of Israel and its neighbors. “The ministry erected about 650 miles of various types of barriers on the southern border,” General Kelly emphasized during the January 10 Senate hearings. - In addition, there are other infrastructure facilities - mobile and stationary. Nevertheless, the security of our border is not enough. ” At the same time, drug lords and criminal syndicates quickly change smuggling routes, adapt to the actions of law enforcement officers and use their vast resources, allowing them to use various high technologies for their own purposes.
In the new position, General Kelly will have to more actively engage in countering the high-tech enemy, including using the same high technology or unconventional solutions to fight him. For example, being at the head of the Southern Command, he proposed to use for continuous monitoring of the vast spaces of the territory under his jurisdiction, equipped with radar and optical-electronic systems, balloons connected into a single intelligence network accessible to interested consumers, including law enforcement agencies of the partner countries in the region .
“No physical protection system will allow the task to be fully resolved,” said General Kelly to senators. - The wall should be part of a well-formed and well-maintained, layered defense system that includes detection tools and, most importantly, well-trained professionals ... And the basis of this system is the need to quickly return those huge numbers of intruders penetrated - no matter how - through this protection system back to their countries. " At the same time, the future minister noted, the United States "cannot simply defend itself." “The security of our border begins in 1500 miles south of the Rio Grande - in the jungles of Latin America,” the general said.
IRRITATIVE INFLUENCE OF IRAN AND RUSSIA
The rest of the countries of Latin America are considered by American experts as the main producers of drugs and suppliers to the United States, but by other means - sea and air. In particular, General Kelly at one time pointed to the growing role of Venezuela in this process: “Venezuela has become the largest transit country for cocaine by air, land and sea ... which goes to the Caribbean, Central America, the USA, West Africa and Europe.” Thus, according to the data collected by the Americans, in Venezuela, as well as to a lesser extent in Colombia, large-scale construction of small submarines-narcotic carts involved in the delivery of drugs to Guatemala and Honduras is deployed on the rivers, where they are loaded onto small vessels and then to America, or go to the States through Mexico - across the border with Texas and Arizona. The cost of building such a submarine is about 2 million dollars, and the profit that it can bring from one flight, delivering up to 8 tons of cocaine, reaches 250 million dollars. Builders use mainly widely available technologies, the time of construction of the submarine is about a year. “They turn around and do it again, and again, and again. Profit is astronomical, General Kelly emphasized at the Senate hearing. “All this costs America almost 200 billion dollars a year.”
General Kelly also insisted that the economic and political problems in Venezuela were the reason that not only more and more ordinary citizens were involved in the drug trade and other illegal activities in the country, but also representatives of the authorities and law enforcement agencies. For example, the Americans accused one of Hugo Chávez’s associates, General Henry Rangel Silva, who was the country's defense minister in 2012, in favor of smuggling drugs and weapons. It is unlikely that such a negative attitude of the American leadership towards Venezuela, as well as Bolivia and Ecuador orienting towards it, will change with the new US president. Moreover, the same Bolivia and Venezuela have become one of the regional allies of Iran, which is considered as one of the most serious threats to America. The leadership of the latter is very concerned about the growing activity of Tehran in Latin America, expressed by the growing political and economic activities, and also, which is particularly disliked by American specialists, in the form of an ever-increasing number of so-called “cultural centers” of a religious nature.
“I see that Iran is actively penetrating various parts of the world, as well as South America, the Caribbean and Latin America,” General Kelly emphasized some time ago. “And, unfortunately, our experience shows: where Iran is going, then the Codus forces (a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to conduct operations outside Iran’s territory. - V.Sch.), and then terrorism.” Incidentally, in this, General Kelly is unanimous with General Mattis, who was one of the most active opponents of the policy of detente in relations with Iran, pursued by President Obama. Among American military experts and political scientists, there is an opinion, however, not confirmed by real facts, that the military career of both generals could have continued even if not for their disapproving statements on a number of items on Barack Obama’s political and military agenda.
Washington is also worried about the growing amount of funds raised in this region in favor of the Hezbollah movement, including proceeds from drug smuggling, etc. In this case, the Americans took Argentina, Brazil, Panama and Paraguay. “The attacks by Iran and Hezbollah in Argentina in the 1992 and 1994 years confirm their ability to conduct such attacks in Latin America,” General Kelly emphasized at the Senate hearings. “Iran and Hezbollah can conduct various operations in the region directed against the United States and its allies, including assassinations, terrorist attacks and kidnappings ... And we are concerned that Iran can use groups or individuals in the region to attack the United States."
On the whole, according to General Kelly, Russia also conducts a similar, destructive policy in Latin America, without which modern political life in the USA, by all appearances, is simply unthinkable. In his opinion, among the main threats are the increasing volumes of supplies of weapons and civil equipment to the countries of this region. “Russians are smart enough to understand the benefits of supplies of various assets, from jet planes to trucks, from the point of view of building long-term relationships with a particular state,” General Kelly said at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Internal Security and Government Affairs. - The speed with which Russians - and the same Chinese - respond to the wishes of one of the countries to buy certain samples, is simply impressive. At the same time, it does not matter to them what type of power was established in this country - democracy or dictatorship. Is there a free press, or has the government put it under control. Whether there are human rights there or there are a large number of political prisoners in the country. They simply sell what they ask for or establish other forms of cooperation that will firmly tie the country to them. ”
“The attempts of the Russians to influence the recent elections” and “hostile” manifestations in cyberspace, the protection of which is also identified by General Kelly as one of the top priorities, which he pledged to solve in the event of his approval in the designated position.
In conclusion, we note that not least the success of General and Kelly’s solution of these and other tasks will depend on effective interaction not only with his former partners in the US Southern Command from various federal and non-governmental organizations, but also with his former colleagues. on the Pentagon. The fact that the head of the latter will be General Mattis - his former supervisor twice - will allow organizing such interaction at the highest level. And at least the fact that, as American journalists point out, referring to informed sources, in the selection process of Donald Trump for the next defense minister, General Mattis, called General Kelly one of the best contenders, can tell about their level of trust. turn, did the same in regards to General Mattis.
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