The subject of the day is the continued saber-rattling by our military. Recently, two retiring US Generals made goodbye speeches indicating that Russia is the biggest threat facing America. As Crooked Timber said:
Russia? Really? I guess there ainât no money in ISIS and Al Qaeda. You donât need strategic bombers, huge mechanized armies and aircraft carriers to fight them.
Equally disturbing are the concurrent mind games being played in the military strategy establishment. Take the RAND Corporation. RAND has run numerous war games which pit Russia against NATO in the Balkans. Their conclusion is always the same: If Russian tanks and troops rolled into the Balkans tomorrow, outgunned and outnumbered NATO forces would be overrun in under three days. Scary!
RAND argues that NATO has been caught napping by a resurgent and unpredictable Russia, which has begun to boost defense spending after having seized the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine and intervened in support of pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine. In their report RAND said:
The gamesâ findings are unambiguous: As currently postured, NATO cannot successfully defend the territory of its most exposed members…
Underlying this, is the insanity of the geopolitical outlook that dominates the national security lobby in Washington. The same day as the RAND report was released, Defense Secretary Ash Carter unveiled plans to add more weapons and armored vehicles to pre-positioned stocks in Eastern Europe. The new $3.4 billion plan (thatâs the annual cost folks) adds another brigade to the mix, but the soldiers would be based in the US, rotating in to Europe for a few months at a time. So, thatâs politically acceptable, assuming the next president can find the money.
But, Carterâs commander in Europe, Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of US European Command, released on his blog that there is no:
Substitute for an enduring forward deployed presence that is tangible and real. Virtual presence means actual absence.
Lots of agreement between these boys.
And, in an article in Politico Mark Perry discussed the testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee of a panel of senior Army officers, in which they claimed that the Army is now in danger of being “out-ranged and outgunned” in the next war that the Army is in danger of becoming âtoo small to secure the nation”. Yikes!
While their testimony made headlines in the major media, Politico reported that a large number of former senior Army officers, rolled their eyes:
Thatâs news to me…Swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles? Surprisingly lethal tanks? How come this is the first weâve heard of it?
The unnamed General went on: (emphasis by the Wrongologist)
These guys want us to believe the Russians are 10 feet tall. There’s a simpler explanation: The Army is looking for a purpose, and a bigger chunk of the budget. And the best way to get that is to paint the Russians as being able to land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time…What a crock.
All of this is political fodder for Obama’s critics in Congress who complain that the President isnât taking us into the next war fast enough.
So itâs time we all wake up to this maneuvering behind our backs. Maneuvering that is designed to have us spend waaay more money on defense, because, Putin.
To help you wake up, give a listen to a rarely-heard tune by Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, âYe Playboys & Ye Playgirls Ainât a Gonna Change My Worldâ, recorded live in 1963 at the Newport Folk Festival, when Dlyan was still a folk singer, two years before he would be booed off the main stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival:
Put in context of the times: Dylan was being called the âVoice of a Generationâ. Seeger adds an endorsement of the fed-up young artist who was already one of the key singers of topical songs in the sixties. For those who read the Wrongologist in email, you can listen to the tune here.
Sample Lyrics:
You insane tongues of war talk
Ain’t a-gonna guide my road,
Ain’t a-gonna guide my road,
Ain’t a-gonna guide my road.
You insane tongues of war talk
Ain’t a-gonna guide my road,
Not now or no other time.
Please remember what Voltaire said:
 Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
THAT has always been the strategy of the military-industrial complex. Arguing over defense budgets, equipment procurement, force strength, is pointless.
Today, the money is just not there to do much more for the military.
The critical debate must be how to fix the economy, which drives the size and strength of our military.
And ultimately, our national security.
