Elbridge Colby Profile picture
Dec 6, 2019 16 tweets 26 min read Read on X
Really important piece from @JimInhofe @MacTXPress here: rollcall.com/news/opinion/a…. Major reaffirmation of leading Congressional support for #NDS w a clarion call for communicating to American people why shift is necessary. @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton 1/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton Article: "Welcomed with broad bipartisan support, this groundbreaking document #NDS calls on us to make tough choices to reshape our military...to focus on a new era of great-power competition, especially with China and Russia." 2/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton "The NDS provides the blueprint to achieve that objective, and it must be fully implemented. That is why we have made it our priority on the Senate and House Armed Services committees to ensure that we turn the NDS from a strategy on paper into a strategy in action." 👏👏👏 3/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton "The good news is that the Department of Defense has made progress toward this goal. The Army trimmed 200 programs and reprioritized savings toward modernizing key capabilities. The Air Force is conducting a similar initiative..." 4/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton "The Navy has redoubled its efforts to preserve America’s undersea advantage. And the commandant of the Marine Corps has released compelling “planning guidance” that signals a promising transformation to come." 5/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton Critical message: "But there’s still a lot of work left to do, especially in earning the support of the American people for the NDS. We must start asking ourselves some hard questions and expand the conversation beyond Washington..." @ReaganInstitute #RNDF important venue 6/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute Key tough questions/issues: "Are we prepared to make the tough decisions required by the NDS?
The NDS can tolerate few sacred cows, but it will require many gored oxen. “Nice to have” programs will have to be cut. Roles and missions of the military services may change." 7/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute "Our troop deployments around the world must better reflect our focus on China and Russia. Some defense agencies will shrink. Pentagon leaders have talked a lot about what they’re “doing” to implement the NDS. We’d like to hear more about what they’re “not doing.”' Yes!!! 8/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute "Frankly, if the NDS is fully implemented, there should be voices of discontent across the Pentagon and Washington. At the moment, such voices are eerily quiet." Bingo 9/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute "Are we prepared to resource the NDS?
We can’t buy our way out of the problems our military faces. But there’s no doubt that meeting our present challenges will require sufficient, sustained and predictable funding." 10/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute "Does the NDS have bipartisan buy-in?...We’ve been able to find agreement with our Democratic colleagues on many important issues, including the need for NDS implementation..." 11/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute "Do the American people support the NDS?
More often than not, Americans outside Washington believe our military has the best of everything and that no other military in the world could challenge us. The NDS explicitly warns the opposite." 13/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute "If there is a consensus about the National Defense Strategy, it’s a Washington consensus, and a fragile one at that. If the NDS is to last, it must be supported by an American consensus." Bingo! 14/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute "Political leaders of both parties, from the president on down, have to remind the American people at every opportunity that we are in a competition." 15/
@JimInhofe @MacTXPress @HawleyMO @SASCMajority @HASCRepublicans @SenTomCotton @ReaganInstitute "We’re not going to win this competition with a strong military alone — but we will lose it without one. These are the stakes for the NDS: revitalizing American military power so that America can achieve its vision of a safe, prosperous and free world." SUPERB!!! 16/

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More from @ElbridgeColby

Nov 2
It’s no wonder @VP & Liz Cheney are aligning against @realdonaldtrump.

More than anyone, he is taking on the uber-hawks in D.C. He’s made an essential effort and it’s taken exceptional vision and steadfastness on his part.

It’s a key reason why electing him is so vital. 1/
I vividly recall in 2016 when @realDonaldTrump was the first Republican leader to say publicly that the Iraq War was a huge mistake.

Everyone basically already knew that. But no other GOP leader had the courage to say it. He did. 2/
@realDonaldTrump An old expression goes: You can judge a man by his enemies. By this standard, President Trump comes out shining. 3/
Read 10 tweets
Oct 30
Don't take it from me:

@SecAFOfficial:

"China thinks it will be able to invade Taiwan by 2027 and has developed a technology edge in many key areas—but it is artificial intelligence that may be the decisive factor should conflict erupt, Kendall said Oct. 29." 1/
Kendall: “They’re working very hard to meet that goal. I have no idea what Xi Jinping will do in 2027, but I am pretty sure that his military will tell him they’re ready, and we’ll be in a period of much greater risk.” 2/
"The Chinese invested in advanced tech—and stole U.S. intellectual property. As a result, Kendall said, they now have an advantage in cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons and are working to build one with targeting satellites and advanced, automated battle management systems."
Read 5 tweets
Oct 29
“After four years of Biden's presidency, Moscow and Beijing stand together as the greatest threat to American interests since the end of the Cold War…Should the Democrats regain the White House in two weeks' time it is hard to imagine anything but more of the same misery.” 1/
“That's why those who decry Trump's 'divisiveness' should think again, at least when it comes to the global stage, and recognize that his capacity to split opinion could play to the advantage of the US. The mere prospect of a Trump victory is already making a difference.” 2/
“Yet, whoever becomes president, it will be China that remains the overwhelming concern…China now has access to all the oil, gas and metals it needs to satisfy Xi's galloping geopolitical ambitions, which include an attempt to force a new world order.” 3/
Read 7 tweets
Oct 28
🎯🎯🎯 @JDVance:

“A very significant difference between @VP and @realDonaldTrump is Harris would like to subsidize Europeans not taking care of their own security. Trump wants Europe to step up big time to become a real ally of the U.S. and not just a dependent.” 1/
“Of course, we’re going to honor our NATO commitments. But I think it’s important that we recognize that NATO is not just a welfare client.” 2/
🎯

Both right and necessary, from @JDVance: “I think the American people have the right to know that Donald Trump rejected the John Kelly, the Mark Milley consensus that America should be the policeman of the world.” 3/
Read 6 tweets
Oct 24
Don't take it from me:

"A full-scale [European] land war in their own territory...may need to be fought without the full firepower of the US, the indispensable ally that ensured the region’s security through the Cold War and ever since." 1/

bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-…
"Yet Trump’s provocative comments reflect a current of thinking that transcends Washington’s political divide and may prevail whoever wins the US presidential election in November: that European governments should build their own powerful militaries..." 2/
"instead of keeping defense budgets slim, safe in the knowledge that their Soviet-era mutual defense pact with America will protect them from invaders." 3/
Read 20 tweets
Oct 22
A very helpful corrective to the tendentious, propagandistic history of NATO we are so often subjected to.

Marc Trachtenberg is one of the leading Cold War historians.

We should look at NATO with real historical understanding. Not agitprop. 1/ cato.org/policy-analysi…
“I also knew that threats of abandonment were often made during the Cold War period. What Trump had said was less anomalous than people seemed to think.” 2/
“Secretary of State Dean Acheson, for example, insisted that Article 5 did “not mean that the United States would automatically be at war if one of the other signatory nations were the victim of an armed attack. Under our Constitution,” he pointed out, “the Congress alone has the power to declare war.” 3/
Read 23 tweets

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