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By Alex Johnson
The United States faces a "national security crisis" because its historic military supremacy has eroded dramatically, making it unlikely to be able to wage more than one war at a time, according to a report. report released Wednesday by Congress.
"The US military superiority is no longer assured and the implications for US interests and American security are serious," said the report released by the National Defense Strategy Commission, an independent agency whose board of directors The administration is appointed by the committees of the Senate Chamber and Armed Forces. .
The report concludes that the Department of Defense is not prepared financially or strategically to wage two wars at once and could even lose a war against China or Russia individually.
"The US military could suffer unacceptable losses and major capital losses in its next conflict," he said.
Co-Chairs of the Commission – Eric Edelman, Under Secretary of Defense during the presidency of George W. Bush, and retired Admiral Gary Roughead, former Chief of Naval Operations linking the Bush and Obama administrations – should testify before both Service Committees later this month.
The Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Abroad, China and Russia, in search of regional hegemony and global power projection, seek to strengthen their military forces to neutralize US forces," Edelman wrote in a message to the Council. Atlantic, non-profit political institute.
At the same time, "the US has significantly weakened its own defense due to political dysfunctions and decisions by both Republicans and Democrats," he wrote, citing budget cuts in the budget. defense of recent years, modernization and availability of the army ".
President Donald Trump last week asked the Department of Defense to withdraw an additional $ 16 billion from its budget, which currently amounts to $ 716 billion, an additional reduction of 2¼%.
"US forces will need additional resources to train at a high skill level in a range of potentially larger and more technologically complex potential missions than in the past, particularly those that focus on the threats. advanced military of China and Russia, "wrote the commission.
But money is not the only obstacle, he concludes.
The commission welcomed the National Defense Strategy (PDF), a summary of US military objectives that Secretary of Defense James Mattis published in January.
The unclassified public version of the strategy document has been widely criticized for its lack of detail, including the levels of force and cost, and the commission urged that a larger part of this version be declassified in order to can "serve as a reference for measuring the implementation of the strategy".
The document "points the Ministry of Defense and the country in the right direction," said the commission, but it "does not adequately explain how we should get there."
The 116-page report identifies outer space and cyberspace as particular problematic issues among many others.
"Because of our recent focus on the fight against terrorism and counter-insurgency, and because our enemies have developed new ways to defeat US forces, America loses its advantage in key areas of the such as power projection, air and missile defense, cyber-space operations, anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, long-range ground fires and electronic warfare, "he said.
"Many skills needed to plan and conduct military operations against competent adversaries – particularly China and Russia – have atrophied."
The report ends with a discordant warning:
"The costs of not respecting the US defense and security crisis will not be measured by abstract concepts such as" international stability "and" world order. "They will be measured in American lives in a US treasure and a loss of American security and prosperity It will be a tragedy – of unpredictable, but perhaps enormous magnitude – if the United States allows its national interests and security to be jeopardized by their reluctance or their inability to make difficult choices and necessary investments.
"This tragedy will be all the more regrettable as it is in our power to avoid it," the panel said.
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