Congress Must Stop the Decline of Our Military Readiness - Defense One
Its simply not enough.
First, let’s examine the numbers. The president admits we face many grave dangers today, yet the overall funding for the Department of Defense is $2.3 billion less than it was last year. And if you discount additional war funding, the president has requested a staggering $10.3 billion dollars less to sustain a military that is undergoing a manning, readiness, and modernization crisis—all in an time of elevated threat levels.
This budget is wholly ignorant of the very real threats to our security and our enemies are taking notice. Russia, identified by virtually every advisor to the president as the preeminent threat to the U.S., is attempting to rewrite the last 30 years of history by threatening our allies in Europe with massive military exercises that mimic invading sovereign nations. They are also deploying intermediate range nuclear weapons in Europe’s back yard and nuclear blackmail by targeting NATO allies such as Denmark if they join the U.S. missile defense shield.
Meanwhile, China is pursuing a multi-domain military build-up in the Western Pacific by making sandcastles in the South China Sea, which, along with air, naval, and missile architecture, will serve as a platform to gain air superiority, assert control of the sea, and threaten our regional bases and allies.
Its simply not enough.
First, let’s examine the numbers. The president admits we face many grave dangers today, yet the overall funding for the Department of Defense is $2.3 billion less than it was last year. And if you discount additional war funding, the president has requested a staggering $10.3 billion dollars less to sustain a military that is undergoing a manning, readiness, and modernization crisis—all in an time of elevated threat levels.
This budget is wholly ignorant of the very real threats to our security and our enemies are taking notice. Russia, identified by virtually every advisor to the president as the preeminent threat to the U.S., is attempting to rewrite the last 30 years of history by threatening our allies in Europe with massive military exercises that mimic invading sovereign nations. They are also deploying intermediate range nuclear weapons in Europe’s back yard and nuclear blackmail by targeting NATO allies such as Denmark if they join the U.S. missile defense shield.
Meanwhile, China is pursuing a multi-domain military build-up in the Western Pacific by making sandcastles in the South China Sea, which, along with air, naval, and missile architecture, will serve as a platform to gain air superiority, assert control of the sea, and threaten our regional bases and allies.
