OUR NATIONAL NON-DEFENSE – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  There is genuine worry on the part of America's military leaders about the condition of our defense under Barack Obama, and it's being stated more and more openly.  From the Daily Beast: 

A series of classified exercises over the summer has raised concerns inside the Defense Department that its forces are not prepared for a sustained military campaign against Russia, two defense officials told The Daily Beast.

Many within the military believe that 15 years of counter terrorism warfare has left the ground troops ill prepared to maintain logistics or troops levels should Russia make an advance on NATO allies, the officials said.

Among the challenges the exercises revealed were that the number of precision-guided munitions available across the force were short of the war plans and it would be difficult to sustain a large troop presence.

“Could we probably beat the Russians today [in a sustained battle]? Sure, but it would take everything we had,” one defense official said. “What we are saying is that we are not as ready as we want to be.”

One classified “tabletop exercise” or “TTX”—a kind of in-office war game—“told us that the wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] have depleted our sustainment capability,” a second defense official explained, using military jargon for the ability to maintain a fight. The exercise was led by the Department of Defense and involved several other federal agencies.

In recent months, the top officers of the military have begun to call Putin’s Russia an “existential threat” to the United States. The results of those exercises—and Russian-backed forces’ latest advance in Ukraine—didn’t exactly tamp down those fears.

COMMENT:  Not everyone agrees, of course, and not everyone cares.  I doubt if Obama's White House is terribly concerned about Russia, not when it can heap scorn on our allies.

But we do seem to be facing a situation that we've seen before in this country, a period of "the uncertain trumpet."  The reference is to the Biblical warning, "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?"  When there is a lack of confidence in a nation's defense, the nation's preparedness and will to win decline.  And the end result isn't peace, but war, as enemies try to take advantage. 

Maxwell Taylor warned about this in 1960.  The warning is just as valid today.

August 14, 2015