Imagine yourself as one of those characters they call a “defense intellectual.” Someone pays you to think deep thoughts about defense issues that impact your country.
I think the interesting question is how we get all the little guys together to express our expectations from our Big Brother across the sea. With clowns to the left of Biden and evil murderous jokers to the right, here we are stuck in the middle and needing a plan.
Hi Ariel. That's an interesting thought. I wonder if it can work. We would need a unifying interest beyond our expectations from the 900 lb. gorilla. We would need something that is also an American interest. I wonder if such an interest exists, and if it does, whether countries as diverse as (just for example) Canada, Mexico, Morocco, Israel, Philippines, and so on can persuade the US on the need for it. What do you think such a plan might look like?
Thank you, Ed - I believe it would be in the American interest for its frontline allies to develop spare manufacturing capacity for regional conflicts, especially given the Trumpist isolationism that injects uncertainty into global affairs.
If I were building such a global manufacturing alliance I would focus on countries on or near the frontline who have been strong US allies; small enough that they do not threaten US concerns or cause the US to think they can become a threat, yet developed enough to lay down a serious capacity redundancy. For example, I would start with Israel, South Korea, Australia, perhaps adding Kenya and Chile.
I agree about the need to expand manufacturing capacity. But I think it has to be done at home. Those countries you mention, for example, will inevitably have their own interests which may or may not include carrying out contracts with us. We should be manufacturing our own shells, bullets, bombs, and so on. I don’t know if we can compete on major systems like jet fighters, but the lesson of Rafah seems to be that we can’t afford to be dependent on wobbly friends any more than is necessary. Sad, but there it is.
Agree. Key components of primarily defensive systems - including standard munitions - makes a lot of sense. Especially if we keep them on the American standard, I can only see this as a plus for the non-isolationists in the govt. And if it's necessary to sweeten the pot by having the US defense contractors as shareholders (without control), why not.
The US political class refuses to see the truth. That there are evil people in this world and the only way to deal with them is to kill them. You cannot negotiate or cajole those who think they have a god given right to slaughter your family. You can try to "deprogram" them, but it doesn't really work, no matter what the Saudis say about their deradicalization program.
The US political class is just the flip side of the progressive left that also sees every issue around the globe through US eyes. Every aspect of every fight is racial to them. Take the war in gaza, they attribute the Palestinians as the beleaguered person of color here in the US and Israel as the white oppressor class. It would never dawn on them that not all internecine issues are caused by color and that there are other peoples around the globe with different histories, and ethnic rivalries. That the war in Gaza is not racial but religioius.
It is what I call "colonizing" international issues and concepts to view everything through the American lens. They cannot wrap their heads around the fact that while the US is a superpower and probably the only stable one despite China's saber rattling and russia's aggression, that other people and places do not conform to the US perception of reality (or nonreality as the case may be).
What was disillusioning to me is that democracy is not widely valued as we would like it to be. In 2004, after invading Iraq, George W. Bush said, “democracy is on the move.“. But, it turned out, though Iraq seemed to have an educated population, it did not have a population that desired democracy . Same thing in Afghanistan-the troops we trained were more dedicated to their tribal alliances than they were to having guaranteed individual rights. So, we have to learn to live with alliances with dictatorships. People from all over the world continue to come here, partially because of the freedoms we offer and partially because of the economic opportunity we offer. What is frightening is that many of those immigrants do not value democracy either.
I think the interesting question is how we get all the little guys together to express our expectations from our Big Brother across the sea. With clowns to the left of Biden and evil murderous jokers to the right, here we are stuck in the middle and needing a plan.
Hi Ariel. That's an interesting thought. I wonder if it can work. We would need a unifying interest beyond our expectations from the 900 lb. gorilla. We would need something that is also an American interest. I wonder if such an interest exists, and if it does, whether countries as diverse as (just for example) Canada, Mexico, Morocco, Israel, Philippines, and so on can persuade the US on the need for it. What do you think such a plan might look like?
Thank you, Ed - I believe it would be in the American interest for its frontline allies to develop spare manufacturing capacity for regional conflicts, especially given the Trumpist isolationism that injects uncertainty into global affairs.
If I were building such a global manufacturing alliance I would focus on countries on or near the frontline who have been strong US allies; small enough that they do not threaten US concerns or cause the US to think they can become a threat, yet developed enough to lay down a serious capacity redundancy. For example, I would start with Israel, South Korea, Australia, perhaps adding Kenya and Chile.
I agree about the need to expand manufacturing capacity. But I think it has to be done at home. Those countries you mention, for example, will inevitably have their own interests which may or may not include carrying out contracts with us. We should be manufacturing our own shells, bullets, bombs, and so on. I don’t know if we can compete on major systems like jet fighters, but the lesson of Rafah seems to be that we can’t afford to be dependent on wobbly friends any more than is necessary. Sad, but there it is.
Agree. Key components of primarily defensive systems - including standard munitions - makes a lot of sense. Especially if we keep them on the American standard, I can only see this as a plus for the non-isolationists in the govt. And if it's necessary to sweeten the pot by having the US defense contractors as shareholders (without control), why not.
The US political class refuses to see the truth. That there are evil people in this world and the only way to deal with them is to kill them. You cannot negotiate or cajole those who think they have a god given right to slaughter your family. You can try to "deprogram" them, but it doesn't really work, no matter what the Saudis say about their deradicalization program.
The US political class is just the flip side of the progressive left that also sees every issue around the globe through US eyes. Every aspect of every fight is racial to them. Take the war in gaza, they attribute the Palestinians as the beleaguered person of color here in the US and Israel as the white oppressor class. It would never dawn on them that not all internecine issues are caused by color and that there are other peoples around the globe with different histories, and ethnic rivalries. That the war in Gaza is not racial but religioius.
It is what I call "colonizing" international issues and concepts to view everything through the American lens. They cannot wrap their heads around the fact that while the US is a superpower and probably the only stable one despite China's saber rattling and russia's aggression, that other people and places do not conform to the US perception of reality (or nonreality as the case may be).
What was disillusioning to me is that democracy is not widely valued as we would like it to be. In 2004, after invading Iraq, George W. Bush said, “democracy is on the move.“. But, it turned out, though Iraq seemed to have an educated population, it did not have a population that desired democracy . Same thing in Afghanistan-the troops we trained were more dedicated to their tribal alliances than they were to having guaranteed individual rights. So, we have to learn to live with alliances with dictatorships. People from all over the world continue to come here, partially because of the freedoms we offer and partially because of the economic opportunity we offer. What is frightening is that many of those immigrants do not value democracy either.