The issue is, should we be supplying weapons to Ukraine? Should we be committed to defend Taiwan either with naval power, airpower, troops on the ground in Taiwan or by way of distant blockade in places like the Straits ofMalacca? Should we be committed to supply Taiwan with armaments to defend itself along the lines that we are currently supplying them to Ukraine? Should we consciously avoid these entanglements?
These questions should be answered with resort to the vital national interests of the United States. If the answers to these questions are in the affirmative, the military-industrial complex should be galvanized to produce the weapons required to enforce whatever option is deemed to be in the national interest.
The said history of America time and again is that it has found itself involved in wars for which we were utterly unprepared. With the size of the budget currently devoted to preparedness, it is inconceivable that we have not space and funds enough to acquire the logistical supply required. Too often in our history we have left our national defense be orphaned in the budget process. One need only judge our preparedness on December 7, 1941. Shockingly, a short five years later we were appallingly unprepared for our "police action" in Korea.
Has the debacle of Afghanistan fallen into the memory hole?
If in the downturn, that I expect will be far more painful than our politicians are currently contemplating, is so severe that there is a shortfall of money for defense then and only then should budgeting considerations dictate national defense strategy. Otherwise, national defense requirements should dictate defense budgets.
Our national defense budget is so big that it is time to question whether we are allocating funds properly. For example, we have to review the role of aircraft carriers on a cost-benefit basis. A multibillion-dollar aircraft carrier with its support ships and logistical trail can buy an awful lot of other weapons at a time when aircraft carriers are becoming more and more vulnerable when confronting nations like China that are possessed of hypersonic weapons.
It is time to let national defense considerations be judged on a rational basis and stop letting the tail wag the dog. Are we buying aircraft carriers because the military-industrial complex feeds off them? Are we to change our policy in Ukraine because we're short a few Stinger missiles?
Are we incapable of rational defense planning because our planners are not concerned with national defense but with defense boondoggles?
