It’s time to take the numerous and growing defense threats against democratic nations seriously, something their government are apparently reluctant to do. While the West’s international adversaries rapidly, dramatically and substantially build their military might, Washington slashes its armed forces, and other freely elected governments throughout the planet continue to underfund theirs.
Despite overt and clear acts of intimidation by those with bad intentions towards free nations, the White House, and some isolationists like Senator Rand Paul and his father, former presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, continue to adhere to a naïve and uninformed belief that simply ignoring danger will make it go away. It has now been revealed that almost four years ago, the Obama administration was warned by a nonpartisan group of distinguished Americans that its intelligence focus, concentrating heavily on terrorism to the detriment of traditional and more overwhelming threats from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, was ill-advised and inadequate towards major challenges.
China pursues an aggressive posture throughout Asia, confronting, among others, western allies The Philippines and Japan. Each day brings further evidence of Beijing’s stunning espionage successes against the U.S. and other western nations, as well as their repeated attempts to hack into the civilian, military, and corporate computer systems of English-speaking countries.
North Korea renounces the armistice that ceased the Korean War, as well as threatening a nuclear attack against both the American homeland as well as prosperous and free South Korea. Despite the fact that the Pyongyang regime is, in essence, a wholly owned subsidiary of China, the White House continues to adhere to the pleasant fiction that Beijing shares the western distress at the antics of the world’s most bizarre government.
Iran rushes headlong into becoming a nuclear power, making a mockery of each and every attempt by the international community to stop them. The Obama Administration has had no credible response to the recent agreement between Pyongyang and North Korea to cooperate with each other in their atomic ambitions.
Largely escaping the notice of international headlines has been the return to Cold War status by Russia under its ex-KGB leader Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has allocated vast resources to modernizing its armed forces, at time when financial and political considerations have led the West and in particular the United States to substantially reduce its own military muscle.
That reduction is particularly startling when viewed from a perspective comparing the American military of 1990 with its current counterpart. The U.S. Navy has been reduced from 600 ships to 286. The U.S. Air Force has plummeted from 37 combat air wings to just 20, and the U.S. Army has been cut from 18 divisions to 10. Due to budgetary considerations, this unprecedented drawdown is about to get even worse, as funds to replace airplanes, ships, tanks and other vital material are withheld. Marine and Army commanders have warned that due to budgetary cuts, key training programs will be scaled back so substantially that up to 65% of their forces will be unprepared for combat within a year.
This dramatic decrease in conventional armed strength has been matched by President Obama’s continued efforts to decrease American nuclear arms to a dangerously low level, considerably below that of Russia’s, and wholly ignoring the growing threat from China.
Inexplicably, while cutting nuclear weapons, Mr. Obama has also pursued the reduction of anti missile defenses, recently announcing the elimination of the final phase of missile defense systems in Europe and only reluctantly agreeing to replace interceptors he ordered eliminated in 2009, after North Korea’s recent nuclear threats.
Faced with financial challenges of their own, America’s allies have failed to fill the void created by the vanishing American military presence.
In light of this almost headlong retreat into unilateral disarmament by the United States, the vast increase in the military power of Russia, China, and China’s North Korean affiliate must be seriously and urgently questioned. (Iran’s motives are tied to its regime’s clearly stated goals towards Israel.)
Absent any substantial defense worries, it must be reluctantly concluded that the powerful arms buildup from Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang and Tehran are for aggressive purposes.
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