National Defense Strategy

The National Defense Strategy, as issued by the Defense Department, is clearly a document written by the superpower. It has many sound ideas, but I wonder how people would read this document if it were issued by a smaller country. And, as with any document written by a government agency, it espouses grand ideas which have been trampled in reality.

Let’s look at some items that would drive us up the wall if they came from Iran, for instance.

• “We will promote the security, prosperity, and freedom of action of the United States and its partners by securing access to key regions, lines of communication, and the global commons.”

• “It is unacceptable for regimes to use the principle of sovereignty as a shield behind which they claim to be free to engage in activities that pose enormous threats to their citizens, neighbors, or the rest of the international community.” Who decides what is an enormous threat? Our holding people in Guantanamo and other places could be viewed as an enormous threat to our citizens.
  

• “Our strength as a nation state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using terrorism, international fora, judicial processes, and terrorism.” Read that again. Bad guys use international fora (i.e., forums for we Anglophiles) and judicial processes. One international forum is the UN. I thought that we were a nation of laws, not of men.

Now, let’s look at the divide between the words and reality.

• “Strengthen alliances and partnerships.” Maybe the administration has gotten religion and will actually do something here to rectify the fraying of our alliances and partnerships caused by the Iraq war.

• “In Iraq, an American led effort toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, a tyrant who used WMD…” Everything I’ve read says he did not have WMD.

• “We will have no global peer competitor…” What about a country called China?

• “We will maintain important advantages in other elements of national power – e.g., political, economic, technological, and cultural.” Do our record twin deficits help our economy? What are we doing to upgrade the math and science education of our kids; we rank far behind most advanced nations.

• “Positive developments in Iraq and Afghanistan strengthen US influence and credibility.” Are there more terrorists today than two years ago? Most rational observers would say yes.