A look at our military threats – and at our greatest foe

Summary: Doug Macgregor (Colonel, US Army, retired) gives a terrifying description of America’s geopolitical situation, looking at our greatest threat. You will find that reading it is three minutes well spent, helping you to see our world more clearly.

The US military has the closest thing on Earth to all the money in the world. As it has in the past, it routes this incredible cash flow into construction (often building dysfunctional products, like the F-35) — while operational readiness crashes. The Air Forces’ planes too often don’t provide enough oxygen to the pilot (e.g., here, here, and here). Then there is the rash of Navy vessels colliding with commercial ships. One incident illustrates the overall problem.

“Fitzgerald Collision Hearing Brings Ship’s Radar Problems into Focus.”
by Dianna Cahn at Stars and Stripes.

“Defense attorneys {said that} the officers were strong performers whose equipment didn’t work properly. The radar and the Automatic Identification System they were working with were in a “degraded” state, so many of the ships around the Fitzgerald did not appear. The officers were unaware of the other ship’s approach. The problems were systemic, the defense argued, with operational tasking so intense that the ship had no time to train or do repairs and with sailors who were exhausted from working 20-hour days.”

While DoD sluices uncounted billions directly into the pockets of defense contractors, the operational readiness of our military decays and America’s strategic position deteriorates. For an excellent, if scary, briefing of the result, see this presentation by Doug Macgregor (Colonel US Army, retired) – posted with his generous permission. He looks at the key regions and the risks in each – the new battlefield created by technology – examples of how militaries have successfully and unsuccessfully adapted to change – and what the US must do to adapt to this new world.

 

He opens with the key slide. How many of these historic problems today? Failure to Learn is a weakness that no amount of economic or military power can offset. Macgregor’s conclusions point to more specific challenges, also existing in our minds. America has vast wealth and almost unimaginable power. Using it effectively requires that we see, organize, and act at a higher level than we have in the past decade. We can do so, if we try.

 

About Douglas Macgregor

Douglas Macgregor retired as a Colonel in 2004 after a distinguished career with notable successes as a squadron operations officer in the Battle of 73 Easting during the Gulf War and as a planner and leader of other operations. He was a strong advocate for reform of the US Army, which froze his career. Events in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven the need for fundamental change. See his Wikipedia entry for details.

He is vice president of Burke-Macgregor, a consulting firm based in Reston, Virginia; he occasionally appears as a guest commentator on television and radio. He has a Ph.D. in international relation from the University of Virginia.

He has written four cutting edge books about military affairs: Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century (1997), Transformation Under Fire: Revolutionizing How America Fights (2003), Warrior’s Rage: The Great Tank Battle of 73 Easting (2009), and Margin of Victory: Five Battles that Changed the Face of Modern War (2016).

See these posts about his work…

1. Important reading for every American who wishes to understand our foreign wars.
2. Important new articles about reforming our military, a key to balancing the Federal budget.
3. What does the future hold for the US Army – and America?
4. Doug Macgregor explains how our military reached its current state, so only desperate reform can save us.

For More Information

If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about our long war, and especially these…

1. Why does the US field the best soldiers but lose so often?
2. Why the US military keeps losing wars.
3. Officers can reform our military and make America stronger!

See Macgregor’s latest book

Margin of Victory: Five Battles that Changed the Face of Modern War.

See my post about it. Also see the publisher’s description…

“In Margin of Victory Douglas Macgregor tells the riveting stories of five military battles of the twentieth century, each one a turning point in history. Beginning with the British Expeditionary force holding the line at the Battle of Mons in 1914 and concluding with the Battle of Easting in 1991 during Desert Storm, Margin of Victory teases out a connection between these battles and teaches its readers an important lesson about how future battles can be won.

“Emphasizing military strategy, force design, and modernization, Macgregor links each of these seemingly isolated battles thematically. At the core of his analysis, the author reminds the reader that to be successful, military action must always be congruent with national culture, geography, and scientific-industrial capacity. He theorizes that strategy and geopolitics are ultimately more influential than ideology. Macgregor stresses that if nation-states want to be successful, they must accept the need for and the inevitability of change.

The five warfighting dramas in this book, rendered in vivid detail by lively prose, offer many lessons on the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of war.”