A report from the Commission on the National Defense Strategy found that the U.S. military is “not prepared” to engage in a major war.
Although the United States faces the “most serious and most challenging” threats since 1945, it is not prepared to fight in the event of a global conflict, the report says.
It adds that China, one of the “major powers that seek to undermine U.S. influence,” is “outpacing the United States and has largely negated the U.S. military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment.”
China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea each threaten the U.S. Together, these nations “opposed to U.S. interests creates a real risk, if not likelihood, that conflict anywhere could become a multitheater or global war.”
According to the Commission, the U.S. military has been weakened due to its “reliance” on old technology. The Department of Defense’s (DOD) “business practices, byzantine research and development (R&D) and procurement systems, reliance on decades-old military hardware, and culture of risk avoidance” mirror an age of “uncontested military dominance.” These practices are “suited to today’s” military environment.
The military also lacks “both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat,” the Commission explains. The report then calls for “new technology” to be incorporated within the military.
“The consequences of an all-out war with a peer or near peer would be devastating. Such a war would not only yield massive personnel and military costs but would also likely feature cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure and a global economic recession from disruptions to supply chains, manufacturing, and trade,” the Commission adds, declaring that “war with a major power would affect the life of every American in ways we can only begin to imagine.”
Members of the public are “largely unaware” of the various threats facing the United States as well as the “costs required to adequately prepare,” the report states. “They do not appreciate the strength of China and its partnerships or the ramifications to daily life if a conflict were to erupt. They are not anticipating disruptions to their power, water, or access to all the goods on which they rely. They have not internalized the costs of the United States losing its position as a world superpower.”
The weakened state of the U.S. military is also due to the failure of mandated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Numerous military academics have implemented diversity instruction, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and “affinity groups” based on gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity.
DEI efforts produce “training materials that parrot dubious, even dangerous, theories that sow the seeds of division and resentment within the ranks of the military,” a report from Arizona State University’s Center for American Institutions states.
