Trump Cabinet members actions and issues: on War & Peace

Mike Pompeo: Killing Soleimani "took a bad guy off the battlefield"

James Mattis: U.S. should keep a small force in Iraq

James Mattis: U.S. should keep a small force in Syria

James Mattis: U.S. should keep a small force in Afghanistan

Mike Pompeo: Oppose Iran setting up Hezbollah targeting in Golan Heights

Israel administered the Heights through military law until 1981, in the same way in which it administered the West Bank and Gaza Strip, before the Menachem Begin government directly applied Israeli law and effectively annexed the territory to the Israeli state.

At a meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem yesterday, the Israeli premier accused Iran of aiming to set up a Hezbollah cell to target Israel from the Golan Heights, claiming Israel's sovereignty of the territory is for its security.

Donald Trump: Russia violates the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty

He said the US has adhered to the pact for more than 30 years, "but we will not remain constrained by its terms while Russia misrepresents its actions. We cannot be the only country in the world unilaterally bound by this treaty, or any other."

NATO said that if Moscow failed to destroy all new missile systems that Washington insists violate the treaty, "Russia will bear sole responsibility for the end of the treaty."

An American withdrawal had been expected for months, after years of unresolved dispute over Russian compliance with the pact. It was the first arms control measure to ban an entire class of weapons: ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500 kilometers and 5,500 kilometers. Russia denies that it has been in violation.

Mike Pompeo: Withdraw from INF to counter Russia and China

U.S. officials also have expressed worry that China, which is not party to the 1987 treaty, is gaining a significant military advantage by deploying large numbers of missiles with ranges beyond the treaty's limit. Leaving the INF treaty would allow the Trump administration to counter the Chinese, but it's unclear how it would do that.

Mike Pompeo said that Washington gave Moscow 60 days to return to compliance before it gave formal notice of withdrawal, with actual withdrawal taking place six months later.

A Russian deputy foreign minister said of the INF talks, "The position of the American side is very tough and like an ultimatum."

The US has no nuclear-capable missiles based in Europe; the last of that type and range were withdrawn in line with the INF treaty.

Daniel Coats: North Korea views nuclear weapons as critical to survival

Nevertheless, we currently assess that North Korea will seek to retain its WMD capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities, because its leaders ultimately view nuclear weapons as critical to regime survival. Our observations [are that some of North Korea's] activities are inconsistent with full denuclearization.

While we assess that sanctions on exports have been effective and largely maintained, North Korea seeks to mitigate the effects of the US-led pressure campaign through diplomatic engagement, counterpressure against the sanctions regime, and direct sanctions evasion.

Daniel Coats: Iran escalating wars in Yemen and Syria, but not nukes

Iran maintains the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East. And while we do not believe Iran is currently undertaking the key activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device, Iranian officials have publicly threatened to push the boundaries of JCPOA restrictions if Iran does not gain the tangible financial benefits it expected from the deal.

Its efforts to consolidate its influence in Syria and arm Hizballah have prompted Israeli airstrikes; these actions underscore our concerns about the long-term trajectory of Iranian influence in the region and the risk of conflict escalation.

James Mattis: Led Marines in Iraq, Afghanistan, and overall Mideast

During his more than four decades in uniform, Secretary Mattis commanded Marines at all levels, from an infantry rifle platoon to a Marine Expeditionary Force. He led an infantry battalion in Iraq in 1991, an expeditionary brigade in Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror attack in 2001, a Marine Division in the initial attack and subsequent stability operations in Iraq in 2003, and led all U.S. Marine Forces in the Middle East as Commander of the U.S. Marine Forces Central Command.

During his non-combat assignments, Secretary Mattis served as Senior Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense; as Director, Marine Corps Manpower Plans & Policy; as Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command; and as Executive Secretary to the Secretary of Defense.

James Mattis: Resigns in wake of announcement of withdrawal from Syria

McGurk, in his resignation letter, said that the militants were still on the run but not yet defeated, and that the early withdrawal of American troops from Syria would re-create the conditions that gave rise to ISIS. Mattis did not mention Syria specifically in his resignation letter, but he did speak of a difference of opinion between himself and Trump.

"You have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects," Mattis wrote. "I believe it is right for me to step down from my position. The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed," he added.

Nikki Haley: Condemned Russia for criticizing US over Syria response

James Mattis: Keep U.S. troops in Syria indefinitely to defeat ISIS

By then, 95% of the ISIS pseudo-caliphate in Syria and Iraq--once the size of Indiana--had been liberated. No longer. ISIS is now making a comeback. Two stunning reports this month--by the United Nations and Trump's own Defense Department--both contradict earlier US claims that most ISIS fighters had been eliminated. The Pentagon report [says] ISIS has successfully morphed from a proto-state into a "covert global network, with a weakened yet enduring core" in Iraq and Syria.

So the Trump Administration has reversed course; it is now keeping U.S. troops in Syria indefinitely.

Nikki Haley: Military action & sanctions against Syrian chemical weapons

HALEY: Obviously this was cumulative. Assad had been using chemical weapons multiple times. But more so, this was about the Security Council resolutions--Russia had vetoed all of them. So we felt like we had gone through every diplomatic measure of talking that we could, and it was time for action. We hope Assad got the message [that] the international community will not allow chemical weapons to come back into our everyday life, and the fact that he was making this more normal and that Russia was covering it up, all of that has to stop.

Q: Are there any consequences for Assad's patrons, Russia and Iran, who continue to protect him?

HALEY: Absolutely. So, you will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. They will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to Assad and chemical weapons used.

John Bolton: Abrogate the Iran nuclear deal; encourage Israel to attack

He has also been a strong critic of the nuclear accord with Tehran, writing on Twitter that "the Iran nuclear deal was a strategic mistake in 2015. This deal needs to be abrogated and America must craft a new reality that reflects the actions of the Iranian regime."

Bolton also advocated for Israel to attack Iran to rein in its nuclear ambitions: "Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed," he wrote in The New York Times in 2015.

Mike Pompeo: Negotiate from strength to denuclearize North Korea

"The previous administration was negotiating from a position of weakness. This administration will be negotiating from a position of enormous strength," Pompeo said. He noted that the Trump administration's international sanctions campaign had forced North Korea to engage diplomatically with the US and suspend its nuclear and missile tests while doing so. The administration's plan for the talks, he explained, is to maintain and increase economic pressure on North Korea while aiming for the "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of North Korea."

Nikki Haley: Peacekeeping forces should not be permanent

HALEY: Because there should never be a time we don't want to lift up countries. There should never be a time we don't want to make them more independent. If we're there all the time, all you're doing is creating dependence. So what we're looking at is you're going to see us wind down. But guess what? We're going to work harder on those areas that truly don't have peace, those areas that are trying to get stability and can't get there.

If we are going into an area like South Sudan, there is a serious problem when we can't get food and medical equipment to those people who need it. The reason we can't get it to them is not just because of extremists. It's because of their own government. When you've got that issue, we actually have to punish the government for not allowing us to bring in aid to those.