Over the weekend, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs made some news. Seems that even though we have had two good years of defense funding and spending under Donald Trump, we are still playing catch up. And why would that be? The Obama effect. The Obama effect is when we elect a progressive as President, and during the next four to eight years, our great military is gutted. Sound familiar? It should be. After all, the same thing happened during the Clinton effect and the the Carter effect (remember Desert One?).
Just like the Russians have love, love, loved it that during the past two plus years, when our nation was tearing itself apart looking for Russian boogie men, they also love, love, love it when we unilaterally decide to cut military spending. That is when they (and now also the Chinese), go to town. That is what this all too familiar playbook looks like. A progressive guts the military, a conservative is then elected after the progressive's term is up, and the conservative gets tagged with running up the deficit (to fix the holes the progressive put in the military). The Obama effect.
The big splash after Trump assumed the Presidency, was for the Russians to inform us they have developed "unstoppable" first strike missiles. Hyper-sonic. While Obama was dismantling our healthcare system, Putin was developing new war fighting capabilities.
General Dunford said, the only way for the United States to have dominance over the Russians and Chinese, would be to have dominance across the board. In other words (my words now), dominance in not only land, sea and air, but also space and cyber.
Every time we have a progressive as President, we seem to forget the main reason we have a federal government. It is to keep us safe and secure. Once we forget that, the bad guys have a field day. No more checks and balances. This mess on the southern border is similar to what the Russians did with their defense spending for the eight years of Obama. Even though the Pentagon rang the alarm bell about what the Russian military was doing, Obama just ignored it. Kind of like the Democrats are ignoring the invasion on the southern border.
It is time to take the security of this country serious. Not only border security, but everything security. If you don't think that bad guys are just waiting to come in here and eat our lunch, think again. One of the drawbacks of having a high level clearance for over two decades, was occasionally you could peek under the tent to see what the bad guys are up to. You get to see the kind of stuff which never makes the news. The kind of stuff which could scare even the bravest person.
Next time you want to yap at Donald Trump for spending too much money, look to see what he is spending it on. If it is to keep us safe (or safer), it is money he needs to spend. If Obama had done his job as Commander-in-Chief, instead of being "Mr. Feelgood", President Trump would not have walked into such a big mess. But he did, and he will fix it. It just takes time and money. Lots and lots of money.
'The big splash after Trump assumed the Presidency, was for the Russians to inform us they have developed "unstoppable" first strike missiles.'
ReplyDeleteBragging about one's military capacity is unwise as a strategy--unless the point is to deceive, which makes sense in warfare, as in some other pursuits.