Nov. 25, 2017: al Rawda mosque where a terrorist attack took place in Bir al-Abed of North Sinai, Egypt. The death toll in the terrorist attack here on Friday has risen to 305, including 27 children, and 128 others were wounded, state news agency MENA reported on Saturday. Ahmed Gomaa/PA Images. All rights reserved.A new era is opening almost by stealth. Its defining feature is military expansion, ordered by the United States president and conducted by the Pentagon. Underlying it is Trump's fusion of elements from the strategy of his two predecessors, George W Bush and Barack Obama.
A recent, low-profile Pentagon document gives a hint of the US's current projection of military power:
"The U.S. has 8,892 forces in Iraq, 15,298 troops in Afghanistan and 1,720 in Syria, for a total of 25,910 troops serving in the three war zones as of Sept. 30, according to DoD. The figures were released to the public Nov. 17 as part of DoD’s quarterly count of active duty, Reserve, Guard and civilian personnel assigned by country by the Defense Manpower Data Center" (see Tara Copp, "26,000 troops total..", Military Times, 27 November 2017).
