Defense

The U.S. Military's Biggest Problem Isn't Russia or China

Currently, America taunts China by taking needless risks, provokes Russia with military operations on their border that in no way improves our own security, extends military guarantees to small countries that could drag us into a war we should never fight, and engages in active combat operations in scores of countries where no U.S. security interests are at stake. Urgent, substantive, and immediate reform in the way we conduct U.S. policy is necessary. I joined the U.S. Army in the mid-1980s and retired in 2015. During that time, I fought in high-intensity tank-on-tank battles, classic counterinsurgency, trained foreign-military forces, and served during the Cold War. I am also an avid student of military history. I have visited scores of battlefields throughout Europe, Russia, Asia, and the Middle East, and studied battles and wars going back to 400 B.C. One common theme I witnessed is that great powers frequently fell because they came to believe they could not be defeated.