War secretary: US prioritising combating narco-terrorists throughout Western Hemisphere

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has outlined four distinct lines of effort for the department to pursue, ensuring peace through strength for the U.S. and its allies in the years to come. 

While delivering his remarks at the Ronald Reagan National Library's annual defence forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth said that the U.S. border should be the last line of defence rather than the first, and that's why the War Department is prioritising combating narco-terrorists throughout the Western Hemisphere, Caliber.Az reports, citing the U.S. War Department website.

"These narco-terrorists are the al-Qaida of our hemisphere, and we are hunting them with the same sophistication and precision that we hunted al-Qaida," Hegseth said, adding that our allies in the region are also aiding in combating narco-terrorism.

He added that the War Department is also working to get back to basics on the topics of restoring the warrior ethos, readiness, accountability, standards, discipline and lethality.

Hegseth also said that the Trump administration and the War Department are committed to putting America first and avoiding getting into seemingly unending foreign entanglements, as well as prioritizing the nation's security, freedom and prosperity of its citizens. 

"We're doing it in a way that leaves not only our nation better off, but the world. Out with utopian idealism, and in with hard-nosed realism," he said.

To achieve those goals, Hegseth said it's necessary to prioritise the aforementioned "four key lines of effort" at the War Department: defending the U.S. homeland and its hemisphere; deterring China through strength rather than force; increasing burden sharing between the U.S. and its allies and partners; and supercharging America's defence industrial base.  

By Khagan Isayev