Donald trump when on the election trail was clear that Russia was not an enemy. He advocated out of book solutions in relations with Russia. He even talked of joint operations against the ISIS. For this, he appointed General Flynn as the security advisor. But Donald had not anticipated the deep-rooted antagonism against Russia and he had to let general Fynn go to save his chair. This was when an innocuous conversation with the Russian ambassador was made out to be a big issue. Donald has now appointed General McMaster in place of Flynn. This general is a hardboiled professional who has all along had an anti-Russia bias.

The general sees Russia through a prism as " a hostile revisionist power that annexes territory, intimidate our allies, develops nuclear weapons and uses proxies under cover of modernized conventional militaries." This is the thinking of general McMaster and Trump willy nilly has to appoint him

Trump has realized that the intelligence organizations wield immense power and he cannot fight them. He has made his peace with them by appointing McMaster. With another general in charge -Mattis as secretary defense another hawk on Russia, Donald has effectively backtracked on his Russian policy. Mattis recently stated that the time had not come for joint military operations with Russia, despite Donald stating that he would like a joint military action against the ISIS.

Hawkish agenda

The two generals will now formulate a hawkish policy. Donald 's roar has become cats meows as he goes about trying to save his chair. The result could be more troops on the ground in Syria and creation of a Sunni-led alliance with the Saudi's . It does not matter even if it leads to war. The hawkish agenda will remain supreme.

Future policy

Donald has compromised on his policy on Russia. Don't expect any more overtures as long as these 2 generals call the shots. Generals are pretty bad at formulating policy and the 20th century has shown that generals generally are a failure in the political arena. The deep-rooted animus against Russia has won and Donald has to play ball. This will not be good for America as a confrontation policy will equally harm America economically. Donald plans to save trillions may not bear fruit as the hawks gain the upper hand.