“The Pentagon Is Freaking Out About a Potential War With China”
As they properly should. Scream and shout, run about, until someone comes along and knocks you to the floor.
Unprepared is pretty much the normal situation under a Democrat President. Look back in history, at Woodrow Wilson, at FDR, at Truman, at Kennedy-Johnson, at Jimmy Carter, at Bill Clinton, at Barack Obama, at sleepy old Joe Biden. One of the first acts, as they take office, is to hollow out the military force as it existed at the time, then in a panic, they try to overcome the deficit by crash programs and widespread civilian shortages. And always, a vast increase in taxation and limits on the civilian population.
Eisenhower, for one, fully understood the value of a large peacetime standing military presence, as did Nixon, Reagan, the Bush I-Bush-II Presidents, and Donald Trump.
JFK ordered a military build-up.