Donald Trump's counter-terrorism strategy urges allies to do more

The draft strategy paper describes the threat from Islamic militant groups in stark tones

A draft of President Donald Trump’s new counter-terrorism strategy demands that US allies shoulder more of the burden in combating Islamist militants, while acknowledging that the threat of terrorism will never be totally eliminated.

The 11-page draft, seen on Friday by Reuters, said the United States should avoid costly, “open-ended” military commitments.

“We need to intensify operations against global jihadist groups while also reducing the costs of American ‘blood and treasure’ in pursuit of our counter-terrorism goals,” states the document, which is expected to be released in coming months.

“We will seek to avoid costly, large-scale US military interventions to achieve counter-terrorism objectives and will increasingly look to partners to share the responsibility for countering terrorist groups,” it says. However, it acknowledges that terrorism “cannot be defeated with any sort of finality.”

Michael Anton, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said, “As part of its overall approach, the administration is taking a fresh look at the entire US national security strategy, to include the counter-terrorism mission — which is especially important since no such strategy has been produced publicly since 2011.”

The process is aimed at ensuring “the new strategy is directed against the pre-eminent terrorist threats to our nation, our citizens, our interests overseas and allies,” Anton said. “Moreover, this new strategy will highlight achievable and realistic goals, and guiding principles.”

Combating Islamic extremism was a major issue for Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. The draft strategy paper, which officials said was still being fine-tuned at the White House, describes the threat from Islamic militant groups in stark tones.

It remains to be seen how Trump can square his goal of avoiding military interventions with ongoing conflicts involving US troops in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

Rather than scale back US commitments, he has so far largely adhered to former Obama administration plans to intensify military operations against militant groups and granted the Pentagon greater authority to strike them in places like Yemen and Somalia.