Are Politicians Acting in the Interests of National Defense?

April 17, 2021

Dear Readership,

From the internet came this statement the other day:  “Do you ever notice that Biden supporters never post anything pro-Biden?  It’s all just anti-Trump.”  Our political polarity has escalated into a near impossible situation to work together as Americans.   Perhaps a turn inward would do both sides of the political spectrum well, especially in light of domestic survivability.  The number one responsibility of any political figure is public safety, whether it be police, fire, or medical at the local level to our countrywide concerns for national defense.

As a military retiree and continuing student of geopolitical science, I lean on the basic principles of war and peace that I learned in the USAF and while attending classes in International Relations at Cambridge University in England.

Two of the main principles are to be aware of and identify potential enemies before they take the initiative and make a first-strike stance.  It boils down to preparedness, known militarily as “readiness.”  Readiness includes understanding of many factors but the foremost is knowing who is out to get your nation, take over your homeland’s economy, and make slaves of the populace the defenders are sworn to protect.  Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump at diverse times identified the five main leading characters in our realm of concern.  They are Russia, the People’s Republic of China, Iran, North Korea, and International Terrorism.  If the military assets and monetary power for these five entities combined to work against the United States would we have the national will, assets, and economic competence to withstand a combined attack?  The answer is probably no.  According to the world authority, Janes‘s book of military power rankings, we would be woefully outnumbered by personnel and equipment.  I will not enumerate the details here, but the readership might want to research the internet.  Certainly our defense financial plan is 5 to 6 times that of Russia ($67.2B), but we have so many threats to consider that our politicians, who control our defense budget, must take extremely seriously in light of the threat(s). 

China’s budget is $183.5B, Iran’s is $17.4B, North Korea’s is $1.6B, and International Terrorism unknown, but it does have funding from numerous extremely wealthy entities many of which are classified numbers.  Some examples follow.  In sheer numbers, the United States has Active Duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel amounting to 2,229,250 while the aforementioned adversaries have 15,542,000.  This is 7 to 1 odds, technology not considered.  Additionally the four antagonists possess 250 submarines to 71 for the United States.

Questions: Would we have allies?  What if the adversaries didn’t gang up on us, but the Russians attacked the Ukraine (according to former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard there are 80,000 Russian troops at the Russia-Ukraine border), Iran attacked Israel (seems as though the threats are daily), China made good its threat of an amphibious attack on Taiwan, and North Korea sent its 1,200,000 border troops over the border into South Korea’s capital of Seoul (a distance of 31 miles), and terrorists destroyed targets in various locations around the world including the United States (recall 9-11?)?  Would our resources be able to respond to all of these fronts?  Would our NATO commitments in Europe be able to still be maintained while we were defending all of these localities?  This is similar to a chess game where the Queen is over-committed and the handwriting on the wall is obvious. 

The Rand Corporation has been around since 1948 and one of its primary supercomputer products is developing war games with the Department of Defense.  For many years, scenarios between the United States and USSR/Russian military have proven our superiority in the war-game state of affairs. On March 10, 2021, Yahoo! News reported in an article entitled, “We’re Going to Lose Fast,” US Air Force held a war game.  There is a lesson from the article that I will quote:  “Air Force Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements, told Yahoo News in an exclusive interview that by 2018, the People’s Liberation Army had fielded many of the heretofore planned forces in large numbers, to include massive arsenals of precision-guided surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, a space-based constellation of navigation and targeting satellites and the largest navy in the world.  ‘At that point the trend in our war games was not just that we were losing, but we were losing faster,’ Hinote said.” 

In my entire USAF career and in keeping up with geopolitical strategies since retirement, this is the first time we have experienced a defeat in these national defense models.  This establishes an inclination that would result in grave consequences for our nation.  Serfdom could follow, and that is a significant concern which Americans would not stomach and should not desire. 

What can the average citizen do about this disparity and often ignored threat to the existence of our nation?  They can contact the House of Representatives and Senate of our representative government and demand action against reducing the military budget.  The following is a recent statement from the Congressional Budget Office: “In his proposed budget, the President requested a total of $706 billion for DoD in fiscal year 2021—4 percent less than was appropriated in 2020 after removing the effects of inflation. Of that total, $637 billion is designated for the base budget, which is intended to fund normal, peacetime activities.”

The seriousness of this budget cut proposal is complicated by many factors that the generals and academy graduates are trained to figure out, but without the national will propelling in the same direction, our present state of affairs would no doubt be split beyond the point of no return.  Americans disagree on many approaches to governance, social issues, and life in general, but the foremost of our efforts must be our survival in a world that challenges our very way of life.  Take action now and persist; if not for ourselves, our future generations.

Regards,

James M. Hoover, CACM
Captain, USAF (Retired)