Fiddling While Rome Burns

by | Sep 26, 2024 | Editorial and Analysis

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Despite CNN’s efforts to tout the historic nature of U.S. President Joe Biden’s final address this week to the United Nations, the lame-duck President turned in a lackluster performance of a lackluster speech. It looked like what it was: an old man reading someone else’s words. As Foreign Policy magazine noted, Biden “droned on dully about the challenges ahead, and the UN delegates responded with a mere smattering of applause…”

Unfortunately, the United States and the West do face critical global challenges that require action, yet the world’s sole remaining superpower seems unable to pay attention. Democrats have focused on identity politics and abortion rights so intently for so long that they suffer from myopia when it comes to national security and international relations. For their part, if this were 1939, the Republicans would be nodding over their martinis and agreeing that appeasement certainly is the best way to deal with der Führer, or perhaps secretly practicing the goose-step.

The West is fiddling while Rome burns. Or, more accurately, the West is too busy scrolling through Tik-Tok or obsessing over the global phenomenon that is Taylor Swift to focus on anything of import.

So, it is of little surprise that the release of the report by the Commission on the National Defense Strategy received little, if any, fanfare. The Commission is a Congressionally-mandated independent body of non-governmental experts in national security charged with assessing the 2022 National Defense Strategy. Released at the end of July, its findings are not pretty, and its recommendations are sobering.

The report opens with the assertion that the United States is facing its “most serious and most challenging” threats since 1945, including the “potential for near-term major war.” China and Russia both seek to undermine America’s influence internationally, and in many ways, China is outpacing the United States in terms of military readiness, having “largely negated the U.S. military advantage in the Western Pacific…”

Worryingly, China and Russia’s “no-limits” partnership, announced only days before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, has only grown stronger and larger and now encompasses a military and economic partnership with Iran and North Korea. The Commission concludes that this alliance, which is opposed to U.S. interests, “creates a real risk, if not likelihood, that conflict anywhere could become a multitheater or global war.”

The report notes that both China and Russia have combined military, diplomatic, and industrial resources to expand their powers globally. The United States should similarly employ a whole-of-government approach, or as the report describes it, “all elements of national power,” to counter Chinese and Russian efforts. The authors of the report write that to do this effectively will necessitate “a coordinated effort to bring together diplomacy, economic investment, cybersecurity, trade, education, industrial capacity, technical innovation, civic engagement, and international cooperation.”

America cannot go it alone. Given the nation’s current readiness, it would be incapable of competing with a China-Russia-Iran-North Korea coalition on its own, nor could it win a war against such an alliance. Therefore, it is imperative that the United States continue to shore up its own partnerships and coordinate more closely with NATO and other alliances.

The Commission’s report has harsh words for the U.S. Department of Defense, which it describes as “ossified” and “risk-averse.” The Pentagon is still fighting the last war, or, perhaps, the war prior to that one, relying on decades-old military hardware and not yet up-to-speed on swarming, AI-enabled capabilities, hypersonic weapons, cyber and space capabilities, or the information domain.

The report states bluntly that “the consequences of an all-out war with a peer or near-peer would be devastating” and “would affect the life of every American” and likely disrupt power, water, or access to goods upon which the citizenry relies, not to mention resulting in enormous military and personnel losses.

Among the Commission’s recommendations are developing a “Multiple Theater Force Construct” that would incorporate U.S. alliances and partnerships to counter and defeat the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea partnership in simultaneous conflicts in multiple theaters. The U.S. military must be ready to defend the homeland; deter China from territorial aggression in the Western Pacific and fight and win, if needed; lead NATO planning and force structure to deter Russian aggression and fight and win, if needed; and to sustain capabilities in the Middle East to defend against Iranian malign activities.

Noting that today’s military and naval force is the smallest in decades, the Commission posits that the United States needs to recognize and acknowledge that a future conflict could overwhelm the nation’s active-duty forces and should begin planning now “to better prepare the reserve components and, potentially, a broader mobilization.”

Finally, the Commission makes several recommendations to the Department of Defense and the U.S. Congress. Among them, the Department of Defense “should immediately review all major systems against likely future needs and adjust accordingly;” Congress “should pass a supplemental appropriation immediately to begin a multiyear investment in the national security innovation and industrial base;” and the Department of Defense “should immediately begin making structural changes and prioritizing adjustments to spend national security funds more effectively and more efficiently.” The report also calls for additional funding to build capacity at the Departments of State, Commerce, and Treasury; intelligence, trade, and investments agencies; the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); and the Department of Homeland Security, focusing these agencies on national security missions.

Ultimately, the Commission contends that the United States is “failing to act with the urgency required, across administrations and without regard to governing party.”

But, hey, cat videos are entertaining, martinis are delicious, and, what about that Taylor Swift? She’s really something, isn’t she?

 

 

 

Captain Scott Rye, USN (Ret.), is a former correspondent for Daily Shipping Guide, the former long-time editor of Alabama Seaport magazine, and the author of Of Men & Ships: The Best Sea Tales and Men & Ships of the Civil War.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Dynamis Media Group llc, NeaProini.gr or NeaProini.us. Any content provided by our authors and/or contributors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.

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