Reference News Network, December 7 report: According to the U.S. "Politico" website, December 6 report, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on December 6 launched a fierce criticism of U.S. foreign policy in the post-Cold War era, specifically criticized several former presidents and generals, and announced that the era of America's "utopian idealism" has ended.
The report said that Hegseth delivered a speech at the annual Reagan Defense Forum, outlining the new military focus on the Western Hemisphere, and demanding that allies defend themselves.
His speech highlighted the newly released National Security Strategy on the evening of the 4th, briefly introducing the upcoming military strategy of the Pentagon, which will elaborate on the global priorities of the U.S. military.
"Abandon the utopian idealism," he said, "embrace smart realism."
Hegseth said that the United States should not be distracted by "democracy building, interventionism, ambiguous wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing, and useless nation-building," but rather place the country's actual interests first.
This Pentagon official also used this defense industry-focused forum to emphasize the measures taken by the Trump administration to shift strategic focus to the domestic front. Hegseth said that the military would participate more in patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border.
Hegseth praised the recent efforts of countries such as South Korea, Poland, and Germany to increase defense spending. "Allies are not children," he said, "we can and should expect them to fulfill their responsibilities."
He said that the Trump administration would "naturally prioritize our homeland and the Western Hemisphere," "although threats in other regions still exist, our allies need to truly and practically take responsibility." (Translated by Zhao Feifei)
Original: toutiao.com/article/7581110500788945417/
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