Syria, ISIS, China And Russia, It's Challenges US Military Year 2017

Selfie a US soldier near combat vehicles in the US military base in Qayyara, south of Mosul (25/10), Source: Reuters

Newsmoved: Washington DC - 2016 were numbered. And soon, on January 20, 2017, the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump will be inducted and leading one of the world powers. Not only in the economic and social fields, the military is also a challenge for Trump.

Currently, the United States still engaged in a war against extremists Afghanistan, as well as ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria. It is unclear the extent of government involvement in efforts to resolve the Trump Syrian crisis.

"In Syria we do not have a strategy to end the civil war. Implicitly Donald Trump may not mind letting President Assad won the war, but I am sure it was not a policy that can be taken with the hand of Assad stained with so much blood," said Michael O'Hanlon of Brookings institution, as quoted by VOA News, Wednesday (12/21/2016).

Meanwhile, the war in Afghanistan entered the fifteenth year. International forces have been reduced from about 140 thousand in 2011 to less than 15 thousand.

Defense expert Michael O'Hanlon said, US defense policy team may need to consider the possibility of adding the presence of international forces in Afghanistan in the short term. "There is no reason for not doing more in an effort to ease the burden of Afghan police and soldiers, to give them time to establish themselves in order to recover from big defeats they experienced," he added.

However, while America has been fighting extremism around the world, Russia and China has been modernizing its military.

"Because we are so focused on operations against ISIS, to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, and because of the provisions of the Act Budget Control since 2012, we can not buy modern equipment necessary to offset the military capabilities of Russia and China," said David Ochmanek of Rand Corporation.

Ochmanek added, the United States needs to spend money to buy weapons such as cruise missiles and missile air-to-air. In his speeches after winning the presidential election, Donald Trump promising development in the military field. "We have the best people in the world in the American armed forces, and we will eventually take care of veterans well," he added.