@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@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 "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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“German defence minister Boris Pistorius has criticised his government for approving less than a fifth of the budget increase he said was needed by Germany’s military, in stark remarks on the eve of a Nato summit in Washington.” 1/ on.ft.com/4cRzqSp
“I got a lot less than I asked for. That’s annoying for me because it means I can’t initiate certain things at the speed that . . . the threat level requires,” Pistorius said.” 2/
Indeed.
“All eyes are now on Germany and on what we are doing, considering we’re the biggest EU member state and make the largest military contribution in Europe . . . We have a certain responsibility and we will live up to it,” a senior government official said.” 3/
Don't take it from me. Excellent, sound piece @fstockman @nytimes.
"The US simply can’t do everything everywhere all at once, by itself. The future requires well-armed, capable allies. The indispensable nation has to be a bit less indispensable." 1/
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, NATO’s first supreme allied commander Europe, felt strongly that his mission was to get Europeans “back on their military feet” — not for American troops to become the permanent bodyguard for Brussels and Berlin." 2/
"“If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States,” Eisenhower wrote of NATO in 1951, “then this whole project will have failed.” 3/
President Trump is spot on to warn of the danger of World War III and the urgent need to prevent it in ways that protect our key interests.
This superb piece from @OAWestad @ForeignAffairs breathes the right spirit for how to do so.
We should want a decent peace. Not war. 1/
"Xi Jinping and the CCP leadership are convinced the U.S. main objective is to prevent China's rise no matter what. [Yet] China's own statements regarding its international ambitions are so bland as to be next to meaningless." 2/
"All current evidence points toward China making military plans to one day invade Taiwan, producing a war between China and the United States just as the Schlieffen Plan helped produce a war between Germany and Britain." 3/
These are the kind of people who we need to be heeding about our nation's security policy and decisions about war and peace. A very compelling and penetrating profile of a key group from @ianwardreports. 1/
Proud to call many of them my friends and to honor their and so many others' service on July 4th.
Americans - and our servicemen and women more than any - deserve better, wiser, and more judicious leadership like these leaders are pointing to.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 2/
"Having witnessed the failures and lethal consequences of the U.S. wars firsthand, they have grown skeptical of the efficacy of U.S. military power, distrustful of leaders and weary of the US involved in conflicts that could cost additional dollars and American lives." 3/
It was really great to speak to @SohrabAhmari for this @NewStatesman article. I'm grateful to Sohrab for the engagement and the very fair assessment of my arguments, warts and all!
"For about a decade, Elbridge Colby has been making a single argument in and out of government: that America can’t afford Chinese hegemony in Asia. He has also been saying that this outcome is narrowly preventable, provided Washington renews its industrial base and stewards its existing military capabilities – rather than waste them on Europe and the Middle East." 2/
"Instead, Colby urges Europe’s major powers to devote their energies to their backyard, permitting America to preserve the balance of power in Asia. “You’re right there,” he says, addressing British leaders. “The UK is rightly worked up about Russia. So focus there, where you have the capacity to realistically make a difference, and it’s more plausible to motivate the UK population to do something.” 3/
See here in @FT. The United States must withhold key forces, not do nothing. Europe and the United States should work realistically to manage and address these vulnerabilities together. 2/
2) I do not think it is fair to say I "ridiculed" the comments there. The fact that I am engaging with places like Policy Exchange and many European outlets proves that I have deep respect and concern for the situation. I believe candor here are the best forms of allyship. 3/