Overview
- CounterPunch urges readers to examine the entire 33-page public National Security Strategy rather than rely on excerpts or hot takes.
- By law there is both a public document and a classified version, and the public text has been redacted and tailored for external messaging.
- The piece advises noting contradictions in the text, including tensions between non-interference claims and critiques of European politics and between cooperative language on Beijing and calls to halt state-directed subsidies.
- Readers are encouraged to identify multiple voices and audience targeting in the document, including echoes of President Trump’s worldview and signals associated with officials such as Undersecretary Colby and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
- The guidance stresses separating boilerplate rhetoric from actionable policy code and watching for continuity markers like phrases tied to prior doctrines, along with edits, leaks, and omissions that hint at what the classified annex may contain.