This doesn’t look good. But it does look natural and excepted. US military advantage has eroded, study says:
“There is a strong fear of complacency, that people have become so used to the United States achieving what it wants in the world, to include militarily, that it isn’t heeding the warning signs,” said Kathleen Hicks, a former top Pentagon official during the Obama administration and one of the commissioners. “It’s the flashing red that we are trying to relay.”
The picture of the national security landscape that the 12-person commission sketched is a bleak one, in which an American military that has enjoyed undisputed dominance for decades is failing to receive the resources, innovation and prioritization its leaders need to outmuscle China and Russia in a race for military might reminiscent of the Cold War.
The military balance has shifted adversely for the United States in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, undermining the confidence of American allies and increasing the likelihood of military conflict, the commission found, after reviewing classified documents, receiving Pentagon briefings and interviewing top defense officials.
“The U.S. military could suffer unacceptably high casualties and loss of major capital assets in its next conflict. It might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against China or Russia,” the report said. “The United States is particularly at risk of being overwhelmed should its military be forced to fight on two or more fronts simultaneously.”
In its list of 32 recommendations, the commission urged the Pentagon to explain more clearly how it intends to defeat major-power rivals in competition and war. It assailed the strategy for relying at times on “questionable assumptions and weak analysis” and leaving “unanswered critical questions.”
Economic depression, this foreign defeat, and 2033. Are you a prepper??
On a not unrelated note, given the expected “unacceptably high casualties,” maybe we could use a little of the overseas adventurism budget to shore up some of these 1-star VA zombie factories.
I read somewhere – somewhere stupid like Facebook maybe – a while back about some fantasy scenario which pitted the mighty US military against the entire world. In the fantasy, the US won, cakewalk style, in about a day. Questionable assumptions and weak analysis, there. A touch of insanity too. This is going to be hard to accept if or when it happens. 460 AD. Rome.
