President Trump is on a world stage. His view of foreign policy is not just about U.S. relationships with other nations; it is about the totality of relationships among all the nations of the world.
It began during his first term in office, 2017 through 2021 with the initiation of the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements signed in 2020 that normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states. A beginning of relationships that never before existed. The Accords were a far-sighted view of what the Middle East could become. His work was also about strengthening the NATO coalition by convincing members to increase their military readiness.
Enter the Biden administration with the Obama/Biden obvious contempt for Israel in general and Prime Minister Netanyahu in particular, Biden publicly referred to Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” nation and Biden kept the millions of dollars flowing to Iran in support of international terrorism.
President Trump is now speaking and acting to the whole world from a new platform. His attempts at a cease fire in Ukraine, while still unsuccessful after a million dead Russian soldiers, are noteworthy. His actions to bring some sense to the Israeli/Hamas catastrophe are also genuine. Recently the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda were in Washington to sign a peace agreement facilitated by the U.S. after an estimated 5.4 million casualties in a conflict that has been ongoing for the past thirty years. President Trump was recently successful in convincing the 32-member NATO nations to increase their military budgets to 5% of their national spending.
But nothing compares with “the strike” against Iran’s nuclear facilities on 21 June.
The Strike’s operational security says a lot about the totality of the U.S. military’s high standards. Additionally overwhelming was the fact that 125 U.S. strike aircraft plus dozens of refueling tanker aircraft flew over 7,000 miles from mid-America to Iran and successfully accomplish Operation Midnight Hammer, never suffered a casualty, did not intentionally strike any Iranian civilians, and were never shot at by Iranian forces.
The point is that there is every indication that President Trump is willing and able to think outside the box, think big, and consider the welfare of everyone and in this case, not just every American but everyone on earth.
President Trump is currently the only leader on earth who can create a successful climate for World Peace Forever, and he can accomplish this during this term in office.
He can do this by creating an overwhelming highly trained and immediately deployable operational coalition of world-wide forces. It is creation of the ultimate lasting deterrence force.
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ADDRESS TO THE NATION
Good evening, thank you for joining me. The first thing I want you all to understand is that not a single word of this presentation is about politics or a U.S. policy. Therefore, after you hear the proposal, I ask you to put it in the proper perspective and not automatically oppose it as a political party position.
This may be the most important presentation in my life. Not only you but the world needs to receive this information; therefore, just as I begin to speak to you the staff is electronically providing a copy to the leader of each of the 195 countries of the world. The reason is that this is not about the United States it is about the world; it is about World Peace Forever.
In just the past year, hundreds of thousands of military and civilian persons around the world have been killed or wounded by warring factions. The world is currently a powder keg and there is no relief in sight.
For the past eighty years, the United Nations has had as its number one mission, and I quote, to “ensure international peace and security.” “Ensure” means to have a plan and be prepared at all times to enforce it. The UN has been a massive, expensive, bureaucratic and complete mission failure every day of those 80 years.
I am NOT proposing we attempt to fix the UN; that is an impossible task. For example, the, power resides in the five permanent members of the Security Council, U.S., United Kingdom, France, Russia and China. Their mission statement is the same as that of the entire UN, to ensure international peace and security yet while every major issue passes through the Security Council, any one of those five nations can kill any proposal with a single-vote veto. Progress and action are impossible.
I am proposing the creation of a new global organization that is absolutely and completely separate from the UN. This organization will have as its one and only mission continuous international peace and security. The mission, in a word, is overwhelming international deterrence. I will refer to the organization as United for World Peace. I envision having at least 150 member nations.
Thia concept of operations requires every member nation to be prepared at all times to rapidly deploy its highly trained piece of the overall global military deterrent force to prevent or put down any and all aggressor actions. For example:
- For nation A their contribution might be a mechanized division with tanks, mechanized infantry and supporting field artillery.
- For nation B it could be tactical air forces.
- For nation C it could be naval forces-.
- For nation D it could be special operations forces.
- ETC.
- For the 36 nations in the world without a defense budget, there will be requirements for logisticians, medical personnel, police, or a forward-based airfield that can support tactical air and cargo planes.
- For the U.S., one of its contributions could be its entire fleet of 850 military cargo planes for power projection of forces to designated hot spots plus about 500 aerial refueling aircraft, a critical capability no other nation can provide.
There should be a small United for World Peace headquarters led by a president elected by the member nations. The staff will conduct daily operations by video conference with the Ambassadors from each nation who are routinely at their home station.
A separate military headquarters will be headed by an experienced 4-star military elected by a majority vote of the member nations. There will be five subordinate commanders for ground forces, air forces, naval forces, deployment operations and logistics.
The military element will be referred to as the IDF. Not to be confused with the Israeli Defense Force, the “D” for this organization stands for Deterrence. This International Deterrence Force will have zero “defense” functions. This force will be about continuous deterrence and massive, rapidly deployable offensive capabilities when it is necessary to immediately overwhelm an aggressor nation or group.
The military staff will consist primarily of experienced operators. Their first mission will be to draft dozens if not hundreds of potential aggressive actions. Having done that, they will then tailor, from the world’s resources a rapidly deployable force to counter the aggression should it occur. For example, some that immediately come to mind:
- Russian masses a potential invasion force on the Ukraine border. The United for World Peace president and military leader would immediately visit President Putin and inform him that if the first Russian soldier crosses the Ukraine border, he will be facing the potential deployable force from the 150-nation deterrent force that is transformed into the largest most powerful military counter offensive force imaginable. Russia goes home.
- On 7 October 2023 Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza with an opening barrage of over 4,300 rockets followed by an attacking ground force of about 7,000 killing 1,195 and taking 251 men, women, children and elderly captive. Missile and rocket attacks rained down from Hizballah, Houthis and later Iran. Israel was being attacked from all sides; was this the time Iram had planned to fulfill its four-decade promise to “destroy Israel?
Had the International Deterrent Force been established, that invasion probably would not have happened. If the attack was launched in spite of the International Deterrent Force, the IDF would have immediately been transformed into a massive counter offensive force with Hamas, Hizballah, Houthis and Iran being attacked from all sides by air, land and sea and overwhelmingly defeated to including destroying every one of the 3000 ballistic missiles Iran had stockpiled for the Israeli destruction.
- China continues to demonstrate with air and naval forces, aka known as practice attacking, the nearby island of Taiwan. The United for World Peace President and the IDF Commander would have traveled to China and demanded they cease those actions. China disregards. The IDF naval commander would have established an impenetrable naval blockade in the South China Sea preventing the China’s import of 11-12 million of barrels of oil per day; their life-blood. The China Navy, while harassing an IDF blockade destroyer, accidently or on purpose fired an anti-ship munition and sank the ship with IDF loss of life. The IDF commander responds by filling the South China Sea with several Carrier Battle Groups and hundreds more destroyers. The commander gives the Communist China Leader a choice. He can either sail his entire fleet into the middle of the South China Sea and sink them or the IDF will attack and destroy the entire fleet along with considerable collateral damage. Disregarding and IDF order will not be an acceptable option in a world enforcing peace forever.
- One more example. Upon standing up the International Deterrent Force, the first visit by the United for World Peace President and the IDF Commander will be Iran. It is well known that for almost four decades, Iran has been the leading sponsor of international terrorism such as those in the current news, Hamas, Hizballah and Houthis. By “sponsor” we mean Iran finances them, trains them, equips them with small arms, rockets, missiles and drones for offensive operations. And presumably tells them when and where to operate resulting in many thousands killed and wounded. Additionally for those same 40 years the Iran leaders have frequently openly announced to the world that their primary purpose is to destroy Israel and death to America. And what has been the UN’s reaction over those 40 years? Nothing. The IDF commander will explain that Iran’s finances will be scrupulously monitored and the first dollar that goes to a terrorist organization or the next shipment of munitions, or the next terrorist training session that takes place, the IDF will take down your entire government and military, destroy your entire stock of munitions and drones, destroy your military production capability and be prepared to take down your oil and gas production capability.
The underlying concept for tailoring an IDF counter force is, “Never take a knife to a knife fight.” Always plan to overwhelm the enemy with a vastly superior force.
A COMMENT ABOUT THE IDF READINESS CONDITIONS: usually referred to as REDCON.
- IDF REDCON 1: Normal peacetime condition. A completed deployment plan will be in place for every member nation. Readiness standards will be clearly articulated and enforced for every IDF element. Every nation will train their element to the highest standard.
- IDF REDCON 2: The United for World Peace president and IDF Commander, having identified a potential threat to a member nation, will tailor a counter IDF element for possible deployment and place them on 24-hour alert.
- IDF REDCON 3: All personnel and equipment for the designated units will move to assembly areas. Deployment aircraft will move to their first pick-up airfield. Forward deployment airfields will be manned and prepared for 24/7 operations.
- IDF REDCON 4: Deploy all designated IDF elements to the target area and prepare to immediately initiate an overwhelming counteroffensive.
NOW THAT YOU HAVE A SENSE OF WHAT WORLD PEACE FOREVER WOULD LOOK LIKE AND HOW IT WILL FUNCTION, WILL IT BE POSSIBLE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN AND CAN IT BE SUCCESSFUL?
As far as I know this proposal is a new concept of operations. Some of the problems associated with a big new idea is dealing with the naysayers; can they drown out common sense thinking? Is change possible; look at the no-change eighty-year-old United failed organization? Fear of the unknown; can it overwhelm good thinking?
Those are good questions but, fortunately for this world peace concept of operation the last half of the twentieth century provided successful proof of concept that we can study and learn from; they are one, NATO and the Cold War and secondly 1990/1991 in the Saudi Arabian desert.
A BRIEF LOOK BACK AT THE COLD WAR, A DANGEROUS 40 YEARS.
Mid-20th century the Soviet Union emerged as one of the world’s superpowers, the Eastern Bloc in opposition to the Western Bloc led by the U.S. It was the nuclear arms Cold War 1950 to1990. Most Americans today are not aware of the intense fear and arms build-up associated with the Cold War.
- Across America in the 1950’s school children practiced “duck-and-cover” drills simulating what should be done in the classroom in case of a Soviet nuclear attack.
- Most Americans today are not aware of the magnitude of the Western Bloc force aligned in Germany to deter a Soviet invasion. For example, the United States had two Army Corps forward deployed with fighting positions predetermined for every element. An Army division deployed along the Czechoslovakian border would be facing off against four Soviet tank divisions. A 155mm artillery battalion in that U.S. division would be armed with tactical nuclear ammunition.
- The U.S. came within a breath of a war with the Soviets when in 1962 they attempted to station medium-range nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba; missiles that could thereafter strike eastern U.S. targets in minutes.
WHY DID NATO WIN THE COLD WAR?
Two reasons. One is the power of a coalition of nations which is what NATO has been for 80 years. Plus, there is one simple factor that makes it even a greater deterrent force, Article 5 of the NATO Charter states simply that, “An attack against one is an attack against all.” During the height of the Cold War there were in NATO 16 member nations and 32 today. The Soviets always new if they attacked it would involve fighting at least 16 nations. With this concept it could conceivably be 150 or more nations against an aggressor anywhere on earth. Deterrence at its best.
These factors will be the corner stone of the United for World Peace charter and we have 80 years of proof of concept. Simply stated, it works.
NOW A LOOK AT 1990/1991 AS PROOF OF CONCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO RAPID DEPLOYMENT OF A MASSIVE OFFENSIVE FORCE.
The International Deterrent Force spread around the world is not a sufficient deterrence. It must be movable. Power projection is a complex and difficult task but it is also within the art of the possible as demonstrated in 1990 and 1991.
First a little background:
Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003 during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
On August 2nd 1990 Saddam Hussein sent more than half million troops and thousands of tanks into neighboring Kuwait and took complete control of the country. Kuwait is located at the southeast corner of Iraq and borders on the northeast corner of Saudi Arabia. Hussein’s army was a force which he often and proudly referred to as, “the mother of all armies.”
The next day on the 3rd of August President Bush deployed U.S. naval forces to the Persian Gulf. Which bordered on both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
On the 7th of August 15,000 U.S. troops, 32 destroyers and 100 aircraft arrived in Saudi Arabia.
8 August, the U.S. Operation Desert Shield launched.
9 August, the UN condemns the Iraqi invasion.
18 August the UN demanded Iraq depart Kuwait. The UN had 45 years of practice reacting crises with these type o worthless demands.
The United States transitioned from operation Desert Shield, the build-up perioid, to Operation Desert Storm, the counter attack against Iraq’s mother of all armies.
Here are some statistics defining Desert Storm that will blow your mind. I’ve rounded off the numbers to make them more understandable. I’m going to read slow:
- Coalition member nations: 39 countries, of which 28 contributed combat forces.
- Force size: Approximately 670,000 troops from 28 countries.
- Coalition air component size: 2,250 combat aircraft.
- Coalition airlift: 509,000 passengers and 595,000 tons of cargo carried.
- Coalition sorties flown: 100,000-plus.
- Aerial refueling: 15,000 sorties that dispensed 110 million gallons of fuel.
- Number of dumb bombs dropped: 210,000.
- Number of smart bombs dropped: 9,300.
- Duration of the air campaign before ground invasion: 39 days.
- Iraqi tanks lost during the war: 3,700 out of 4,300 in inventory.
- Number of U.S. Carrier Battle Groups on station, 6.
- Coalition POWs taken during the war: 26.
- Iraqi POWs taken during the war: 70,000-plus.
- U.S. combat-related deaths: 147
- Iraqi military deaths: 100,000-plus.
- Ground war duration and this final statistic will blow your mind; duration of the ground war, 100 hours against Saddam Hussein’s more than half a million soldiers in defensive positions.
This all happened between August and the following February. Beyond the magnitude of the war-fighting personnel and equipment, think about the daily logistics of delivering food, water, thousands of tons of ammunition to be moved, and handling 70,000 POWs, all of it happening in the Saudi Arabian desert which is over 7,000 miles from middle America. Simply amazing.
CONCLUSIONS TO THIS POINT
- The power of a coalition of nations and the counteroffensive against Iraq in 1990-1991 are proof of concept for the formation and rapid deployment of an overwhelming counteroffensive force. It can deter and if necessary, deploy to insure world peace forever. And those two illustrations are so powerful that they can overpower the naysayers, cause us to deal with the difficulties associated with change and fear of the unknown. Bottom line, we should feel comfortable moving forward.
- The world is a tinder box ready to explode. Neither the United Nations nor the Security Council have not, cannot, and will never be able to take on its priority mission “to ensure international peace and security.”
- Today, most nations with a military have a multi-force organization; that is a mix of ground, air and naval forces. Contrary to this, the International Deterrent Force will consist of specific military elements assigned to each member nation. If and when the IDF needs to deploy it will be a tailored force drawn from a number of member nations. The point being that trillions of dollars in defense spending will we saved around the world every year.
- There will no longer be a need for nations’ bilateral treaties for mutual defense; the United for World Peace deterrence will be your defense.
- With world peace assurances in place, perhaps the next step could be a world without nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, or biological weapons
GIVEN THIS OVERVIEW OF THE CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS, HOW SHOULD WE PROCEED AND WHAT SHOULD A FAST-TRACK TIMELINE LOOK LIKE?
- First, I will put a team to work drafting a United for World Peace Charter. It should be brief and to the point because it will be a single-issue organization; deterrence. That should be finished and out to the leaders of all the nations within a week.
- Secondly, a team of civilian and military operators will create the first draft of the two headquarters; that of the President of United for World Peace and that of the Commander of the IDF. Along with the organization charts will be a one-sentence mission statement for each. Those drafts should be completed by mid-August and forwarded to world leaders.
- Also, in August we will divide the world into small groups of nations. For example, Southeast Asia: Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. We will ask one of the nations to host a one-day meeting in September. Either myself, Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio or Secretary of Defense Hegseth will plan to attend the meeting to address your questions contributions and discuss where best to locate the two headquarters.
- On 1 October we will ask you to confirm that you will be a member of United for World Peace.
- During October, we will ask for those persons who wish to be considered for the positions of President, United for World Peace and for Commander of the IDF to forward a five-page resume to me for distribution to each of the member nations. The candidates my campaign in person or via videos until election day 1 December.
- On 1 January 2026 the two elected leaders will stand up their respective headquarters and beginning filling out their small staffs with the intent to be operational in 30 days.
- The pressure will immediately be on the IDF Commander to articulate multiple potential aggressor actions and then tailor a trained and ready counter attack force from the member nations that would be needed to deploy.
BOTTOM LINE
Thank you for listening America and to the leaders of the world I hope to be hearing from you soon.
Implementing a concept of operations for peace forever is not about politics or religion or economics, it has to do with life and death and not living in fear. We should take note of the words from the famous author William Shakespeare who perfectly summed up our dilemma, our timing and a solution with these words:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.”
Beautiful and thoughtful words. The choice is ours to be bound in shallows and miseries or take the current on to fortune.
There is significant discussion today about “a new world order.” It is within the art of the possible that the new world order could be, should be World Peace Forever.
Thank you for listening and God bless America.
End of President Trump’s presentation.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Mr. President, you are currently ” the leader of the free world” in name only. Here is an opportunity to lead the world towards sustained world peace, not for the United States’s sake but for the world’s sake. Make it your number one non-political priority.
For those of you reading this, if you believe world peace has merit and if you have any contacts in the White House, State Department or Defense Department, please get a copy to them.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, FIX THE SYSTEMS, TRANSFORM AMERICA as well as the author of a blog WeThePeopleSpeaking.com