Today, the U.S. is supporting a proxy war with Russia while simultaneously attempting to deter a China cross-strait invasion of Taiwan. Both are wakeup calls that victory and deterrence in modern war will be determined by a state’s ability to both use traditional weapons systems and simultaneously rapidly acquire, deploy, and integrate commercial technologies (drones, satellites, targeting software, et al) into operations at every level.
Congress must act to identify and implement changes within the DoD needed to optimize its organization and structure. These include:
Why Is It Up To Congress?
National power is ephemeral. Nations decline when they lose allies, economic power, interest in global affairs, experience internal/civil conflicts, or miss disruptive technology transitions and new operational concepts.
The case can be made that all of these have or are happening to the U.S.
While parts of the DoD understand we’re in a crisis to deter, or if that fails, win a war in the South China Sea, the DoD as a whole shows little urgency and misses a crucial point: China will not defer solving the Taiwan issue on our schedule. Russia will not defer its future plans for aggression to meet our dates. We need to act now.
We fail to do so at our peril and the peril of all those who depend on U.S. security to survive.
