By Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to crack down on terrorism but avoid getting involved in messy regime changes. That strategy reflects the feeling among some that Washington has not dealt harshly enough with terrorism, as well as the sentiment that the United States has lost too many American lives overseas.
Trump last month clinched the White House in a victory that shocked the world, proving wrong the predictions of the vast majority of analysts and polls that said he would lose.
The brash billionaire has vowed to shake up U.S. foreign policy, and to bomb the radical terror group Islamic State back to the Stone Age, as the terrorists have carried out attacks in the United States and Europe. But at the same time, Trump wants to avoid messy entanglements, such as regime change. Indeed, the United States paid a heavy price for regime change in Iraq, when U.S. forces toppled strongman Saddam Hussein and ended up getting sucked into a guerrilla war that cost thousands of American lives, while physically and mentally wounding many more.
"Trump's strategy reflects a hybrid blend of two separate frustrations about the ongoing conflict (with IS). First, that the United States hasn't taken the gloves off when it comes to fighting these groups. And second, that we've spent too much blood and treasure policing the Middle East, with little cooperation from allies and continued opposition from Russia and Iran," Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.
"I think Trump reflects a lot of foreign policy realists' concerns about the impact of regime change on stability-particularly in the Middle East," he said.
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