Thread by @jseldin

"We're doing better" at using all elements of nat'l power, per @FDD_CMPP Chair, former Nat'l Sec Adviser, ret LTG HR McMaster at @FDD

But warns against viewing military ops as "ends in and of themselves"

@FDD_CMPP @FDD "The map of the world is being reshaped" per @JCZarate1 at @FDD "There's a physical reshaping, there's a virtual reshaping... You also have reshaped alliances"

"We are not very good at not just combining elements of power but thinking about how the asymmetric properties of the global environment are actually taking place & how we operate in it" per @JCZarate1

@JCZarate1 US adversaries "very much willing to ally w/non-state actors & networks" per @JCZarate1 "The #Russia|ns w/organized criminal networks, the #Chinese using #cyber... the #Iran|ians using all sorts of proxies"

@JCZarate1 "It's important for us to recognize, 1st if all, as Americans to recognize what's at stake in these competitions" per former Nat'l Security Adviser HR McMaster "It may be that we've been at war more than Americans want..."

"In places like the greater #MiddleEast, centered on the #Syria decision recently, for example or in #Afghanistan, we have to be able to recognize what are our vital interests" per HR McMaster "We have to break out of this pre-9/11 mentality..."

"The #alQaida & the #ISIS alumni are orders of magnitude greater than they were" per former US Nat'l Security Adviser HR McMaster "They have much more sophisticated means available to them, cryptic communications, different & much more effective ways of recruiting..."

Former US Nat'l Security Adviser HR McMaster calls newfound capabilities for #ISIS #AQ "the democratization of destruction" noting they have capabilities once available only to nation states

"The only way to win this fight is to keep them more worried about their own safety&then to isolate them from sources of strength&support, financially & otherwise, that you can only really do by working closely w/partners" per McMaster "Partners who are bearing the greatest cost"

#Russia #cyber info ops, and similar ops by others, is pitting Americans against each other, warns former Nat'l Security Adviser HR McMaster

"We take the bait a lot on this, unfortunately, & we become divided over issues we ought to be able to agree on"

US, Americans "need to bolster our confidence - our confidence in who we are as a people, our democratic principles, institutions...and confidence in our foreign policy" per McMaster "We are losing a bit now bcs of perceived inconsistencies & therefore unreliability"

"Like-minded partners, whose interest used to align with yours, they start to hedge" per McMaster

#Syria decision-"This is coming from this sentiment that the president & others perceive that our forces are not accomplishing a worthwhile outcome" per former NSA HR McMaster "What is missing, I think, is a more full understanding of what is at stake"

"The troop commitment in northeastern #Syria was immensely helpful to US security & US interests" says McMaster "Terrorists groups, as you know, after you defeat them on the physical battlefield,they just don't go away...They maintain their networks&they build their capabilities"

"We know this has to be a sustained effort to defeat #ISIS" per former Nat'l Security Adviser HR McMaster

#Turkey-#Kurd fight in NE #Syria "has profound political as well as humanitarian consequences in the region" per McMaster

In NE #Syria "that Syrian Defense Force, w/our special operations forces.. happen to be sitting on top of 65-70% of Syria's oil reserves" per McMaster "Guess who really wants that badly? Vladimir Putin & the Assad regime"

"Once you cede control there, you cede influence..."

McMaster: "What's unfortunate I think about the decision is I think a lot of people who may have been talking to the president, the president himself, may not have focused maybe on the importance of that force in connection w/defeating a terrorist organization..."

"...but also having the influence necessary to ultimately help end this catastrophe across the greater #MiddleEast" per ex Nat Sec Adv McMaster, warning could be 4 simultaneous crises:
-Turkey-Kurds
-intensification of Syria civil war
-destabilization of Iraq
-Iran proxies

#Turkey's @RTErdogan "is driven more by emotion" than aligned US-Turkish interests, adding, sanctions vs #Turkey inevitable & relationship will get "more strained"

NEW: OK for @POTUS to solicit foreign interference in US elections?

"Of course, no" per former NSA HR McMaster "Absolutely not...What has to happen here is seeing our democracy play out, the separation of powers play out", adding American ppl will have to decide if it happened

@POTUS #Turkey military op in #Syria - "We failed" says former @POTUS NatSec Adviser HR McMaster "The ppl who were working on policy failed over the years in northeastern Syria to give the president, any president, an option other than go to war w/a @NATO ally or withdraw"

@POTUS @NATO "There might have been more things that could have been done to avoid that break point" per McMaster "Was this an action that was going to happen anyway? I don't know..."

@POTUS NEW: "In all the conversations, all the meetings I was privy to, there was never any incident" per fmr NSA HR McMaster "It just didn't happen when I was there in any conversation that I was privy to & part of, which was I think really all of the head of state calls"