U.S. soldiers attend the inauguration ceremony of bilateral military training between U.S. and Polish troops in Zagan, Poland, January 30, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
Thomas Spoehr, National Interest: Why the U.S. Military Is In Serious Trouble
"The report notes that the United States now faces five rising challenges—China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and transnational terrorism—yet has fewer military forces than at any time since the end of World War II."
The report of the National Defense Strategy Commission, released Wednesday, reaches conclusions with profound implications for U.S. national security. The report itself is a rarity for Washington, presenting bipartisan consensus that reflects hard-hitting views rather than watered-down, lowest-common-denominator mush.
In sixty-four pages of plain language, the commission paints an extraordinarily troubling picture of the state of U.S. national defenses, calling our present situation a “grave crisis” demanding “extraordinary urgency.” It’s a call we should heed.
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WNU Editor: The argument is that the U.S. military does not have the funds and resources to meet current mission priorities and objectives. My issue .... and one that I have been voicing since the start of this blog almost 11 years ago .... is that the U.S. needs to have a debate on what are America's priorities and objectives, and then outline the funds and resources that it will need to meet them. Currently .... I see the U.S. being involved in too many regions and conflicts that are not vital to U.S. national security and long term interests, but an involvement that is costing the U.S. an enormous amount of money and resources and with no end in sight. This .... to put it bluntly .... cannot continue. Fortunately .... some are now starting this debate .... 2 Reports On The U.S. Military, 2 Different Messages (NPR).
2 comments:
Trump has sort of started that process by demanding of EU countries to share more of the burden in NATO if they expect US protection. In fact all countries under the US defense umbrella are being asked to up their defense spending and bear more of the burden for their own defenses. No more 1% GDP for Germany and Japan.
The next Preisdent won't return to pre-Trump, in fact if its a Democrat they are likely to be cutting US defense spending aggressively forcing more and more nations to deal with their defense.
WNU Editor; I understand your point but it's hard to measure and quantify "interest". For example; one could say the central Africa is not an interest but if we don't do something no one else would then real issues start. The Chinese have already started in roads in Africa and we would not want it controlled by them or taken over by ISIS; then the cost just up to clean it up. So I am OK with present deployments (albeit some smaller ones), just to prevent future wars or costs.
Also, new tech coming on line will help mitigate the issues with staffing the Military. The Robots are coming!
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