Ex-CIA Officer: Biden Defense Strategy Timed for Election, 'Mostly Propaganda'

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Joe Biden's new National Defense Strategy announced on Thursday was timed to impress the US public before the November 8 midterm congressional elections and is not completely serious, former CIA analyst and station chief Phil Giraldi told Sputnik.

"I think it has to be considered in the context of the upcoming election," Giraldi said on Thursday. "It is mostly propaganda and not completely serious."

Giraldi described the document as "somewhat unhinged" and said it presumed to present an exegesis on all the presumed threats in the world along with a detailed account of what the Biden Administration was doing to protect Americans from them.

"I consider most of the language to be government/media speak intended to appeal to certain constituencies in the United States and Europe," he said.

Giraldi said in addition to targeting China, the document inevitably stressed the need for simultaneously constraining Russia, and mentioned that country 71 times. "Can the United States afford to have such adversaries turned into enemies, given its multiple domestic issues including out of control inflation and debt?" he asked.

Many Europeans were willing to let the United States lead on such issues, but they were also beginning to express concern that the Biden challenge to China will develop into a trade war at minimum and possibly much worse if China responded in kind, Giraldi said.

"Will the Biden [administration] have the sense to restrain their promotion of powerful foreign enemies even as the law enforcement and intelligence agencies struggle in an internal war against home grown terrorism? I don't know," he said.

The Pentagon released its National Defense Strategy (NDS) on Thursday, which said China remains the US' top competitor and warned that Beijing and Moscow collaborating might threaten US interests. The document also characterizes Russia as an acute and more immediate threat to US interests and values than China, which is characterized as a "pacing challenge."