America’s military superiority has “eroded to a dangerous degree,” leaving the U.S. in a “crisis of national security,” especially if faced with more than one conflict at once, a new congressionally mandated report concluded.
“The U.S. military could suffer unacceptably high casualties and loss of major capital assets in its next conflict,” reads the report, issued Wednesday by the National Defense Strategy Commission. “It might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against China or Russia. The United States is particularly at risk of being overwhelmed should its military be forced to fight on two or more fronts simultaneously.
“Additionally, it would be unwise and irresponsible not to expect adversaries to attempt debilitating kinetic, cyber, or other types of attacks against Americans at home while they seek to defeat our military abroad,” the authors add. “U.S. military superiority is no longer assured and the implications for American interests and American security are severe.”
The commission is a congressionally empowered, bi-partisan committee, put together in July 2017. Three individuals each were assigned by the House and Senate Arms Services Committee leadership at the time — the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., SASC ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I.; HASC chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.
While reports warning of potential doom for the U.S. military are not unknown in Washington, the nature of this report — a requirement from Congress, with hand-picked experts — means that it will inevitably get attention on the Hill, just as a new Congress, with Democrats now running the House, settles in for the FY20 budget fight.
The group was co-chaired by Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador and undersecretary of defense for policy from 2005-2009, and Gary Roughead, a retired admiral who was the 29th chief of naval operations from 2007 to 2011. In a strange twist, one of the members of the panel was Jon Kyl, at that point a former senator and now the man who is filling McCain’s seat.
