In These New Times

It is suddenly fashionable among certain luminaries of the left to see the Trump presidency of having conceded control to the neocons. But the US military top brass who now hold sway in Washington don’t sound at all like neocons: within the context of the obligatory US triumphalism  these assessments of are remarkably realistic and negative. There is no sense that the military leadership is about to embark on any rash military adventures- quite the opposite. This realism concerning US unreadiness “to confront a peer-level threat such as Russia or China in a high-end conflict” combined with the defeat of US proxy forces in Syria leaves the Wolfowitz doctrine a dead letter.

National Interest

7th September, 2017

“If we get into one of those conflicts, we’ll win, but it going to take a lot longer than we’d like and it’s going to cost a lot more in terms of dollars and in casualties.” The United States military is not ready to confront a peer-level threat such as Russia or China in a high-end conflict. As it currently stands, while the United States would ultimately prevail in a hypothetical high-end war, Washington would pay a high price in blood and treasure. That’s what the nation’s top uniformed officers told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Sept. 15.

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