1. The next five months will be the most dangerous for US foreign policy and our forces overseas in recent history. The pace of attacks is growing in Iraq and Syria. Putin will try to exploit Trump's weakness and knows he has a limited window to weaken US military positions

2. in global conflict zones and, like the recent moves in Africa, Putin will move to fill a vacuum created by the lack of coherent US policy. These moves will put our forces at increasing risk. Putin's goal is to create a pretext for Trump to cede US ground to the Russians,

3. Syrians & Iranians. Belarus and its unpredictable political situation may actually be a moderating factor simply because it was not part of Putin's Trump Project end-game. #Putin does not like risk.

This would be a good time for France and other NATO members to step up

4. support for maintaining status quo in regions of conflict like the Mideast where the US serves as the head of a global coalition. We will have much rebuilding to do and should seek cooperation of allies to help maintain our shared goals globally while we enter a period of

5. increasing political strife due to Trump's announced intention to not test and not unconditionally protect and defend the US Constitution and the Rule of Law.