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The two-decade War on Terror in the Middle East has left America overlooking the security issues in its own backyard, at least according to the House’s new Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford, R-Ark.
“We were so focused on the global war on terror, what that’s done is opened up opportunities for countries like China,” the Arkansas Republican told a small group of reporters as he laid out his priorities for the committee.
“But even going back before China, you know, obviously the Russians have been very aggressive in the hemisphere, in particular in countries like Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and elsewhere,” Crawford added.
“They’ve taken every opportunity to try to carve out a niche of influence in areas… in our backyard.”
GABBARD ANNOUNCES CRACKDOWN ON INTELLIGENCE LEAKS
The two-decade War on Terror in the Middle East has left America overlooking the security issues in its own backyard, at least according to the House’s new Intelligence Chair Rick Crawford. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has pushed a new Monroe Doctrine-like focus, most notably with Trump calling for the U.S. to take back the Panama Canal from China.
That call was answered with a deal for U.S.-based BlackRock to take over two ports of entry to the canal from Hong Kong-based C.K. Hutchison. Now, Chinese authorities are threatening to thwart that deal.
As China increasingly threatens U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific, Crawford believes the U.S. could win a war with the Chinese if it needed to — for now. “But we don’t have a lot of time. We can’t sit back and ponder the situation much more.”
China and Russia are aggressively testing offensive capabilities in space, Pentagon officials have said, while China-watchers warn the CCP is ahead of the U.S. in shipbuilding capabilities, hypersonics, anti-ship ballistic missiles, cyber and is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal.
Crawford said the U.S. may need to rethink its…
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