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 Asked who he trusts on national security, Trump had warm words for
three men with world views that differ from one another, and who
diverge sharply on some key issues from Trump himself. They are
former diplomat Richard Haass and retired U.S. Army officers Gen.
Jack Keane and Col. Jack Jacobs.
His mention of the eclectic trio did little to satisfy mounting
calls for him to announce a list of his campaign foreign policy
advisors, who traditionally take top posts should he be elected. His
debate comments appeared to be more words of admiration for the
three men than a signal he was forming the nucleus of a national
security team.
Trump has been rejected by a significant swath of his party's
foreign policy establishment. Almost 110 Republican foreign policy
veterans have signed a letter pledging to oppose Trump, saying his
proposals would undermine U.S. security.
The three men Trump mentioned have different views of the 2003 Iraq
invasion, arguably the most controversial foreign policy decision in
a generation. Trump says he opposed the war, calling it a disastrous
intervention and accusing the administration of then President
George W. Bush of misleading Americans.
 Keane is a defense hawk who helped devise the 2007 Iraq "surge" -- a
move to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq to quell
sectarian strife -- and served as an informal consultant to Bush.
Keane told Reuters on Friday he has never spoken to Trump.
Keane, now chairman of the board of the Institute for the Study of
War think tank, said he has briefed seven presidential candidates
from both parties, whom he declined to identify.
"I don’t comment publicly on any candidate, their proposals, their
policies. I have never done. I won’t do it," he said.
"REALLY EXCELLENT"
Haass is a centrist foreign policy thinker and president of the
Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank seen as a fixture of the
U.S. foreign policy establishment. The State Department's policy
planning director at the time of the Iraq invasion, he wrote later
that he was largely against the war.
"I did not believe in the Iraq war,” Haass said in a 2009 interview
with National Public Radio.
Trump has proposed barring Muslims from entering the United States,
demanded that Mexico fund a wall to control illegal immigration
across the U.S. border, and praised Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
He has called for building up the U.S. military while also saying he
wants allies to pick up more of the burden in conflicts such as
Syria and Iraq. He has vowed to destroy Islamic State.
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A spokeswoman for Haass, Iva Zoric, said that he briefed Trump on
foreign policy in August 2015. In a tweet late on Thursday, Haass
wrote: "I do not endorse candidates. What I have done is offered to
brief all candidates, & have briefed several, D(emocrat) &
R(epublican) alike."
Jacobs, now a frequent television commentator, won the Medal of
Honor, the highest U.S. military decoration, in the Vietnam War. He
has expressed skepticism regarding large scale American military
interventions in the Middle East and has suggested that
waterboarding, an interrogation technique that many call torture and
that Trump has endorsed, is ineffective.
Trump softened his stance on torture on Friday, saying he would not
order the U.S. military to break international laws on how to treat
terrorism suspects.
Jacobs has been critical of political leaders who send American
troops on missions without what he considers a well-defined
strategy. Jacobs, writing in 2007, criticized the post-invasion plan
for Iraq, including the "foolish decision" to disband the Iraqi
army.
Pressed on Thursday night to identify his foreign policy advisers,
Trump said that Haas and Keane were "excellent" and that he liked
Jacobs "very much." Jacobs declined to comment on whether he was
helping Trump.
"I have many people that I think are really excellent but in the end
it's going to be my decision" on national security matters," Trump
said.
Keane, who appears frequently before congressional committees and on
television, has accused U.S. President Barack Obama of not acting
forcefully to help moderates in Libya and Syria. He called Obama's
2011 withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq an "absolute
strategic failure," and charged that he lacks a strategy to contain
the spread of Islamic State and help moderates in the region.
Keane told Reuters that as a strict rule, he will not join campaigns
as an advisor, nor endorse political candidates.
(Editing by Stuart Grudgings)
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