Jerry Hendrix has a more extensive and detailed article in a recent National Review issue. He analysis of how we got to this bad place gives the background necessary to the means to turn it around. Worth a read.
Once you realize that the goal of the Western - particularly the American - ruling class is the destruction of the West and its middle class, everything they’re doing makes sense. It’s not as though these are stupid people: they’re winning. The problem is not the issues you raise, it’s the refusal by Americans to understand the goals of our overlords and our unwillingness to do anything about those goals - or them.
Stating / Re-stating the obvious: Having a severe case of "twenty years ago-itis" seems to be rampant at the senior levels of DoD and the State Department. We think we are what we were 20 years ago and act as if everyone else thinks we are as well. Well, we aren't what we were in quantity, quality, and sustainability and the rest of the world knows it. Haven't read the Hendrix article yet, but suspect the amount of time required to turn things around is something we will not have.
If we want to learn how to manage the construction of warships, we need to get the US back in the business of building warships. Time to return the few naval shipyards we have left to the business of building ships.
It is privatization that got us here.
Here's an analogy. A small town has a garbage department. City workers have been hauling trash for decades, and they earn a good chunk of change. The city has been buying garbage trucks, and running a truck repair lot since 1927.
Waste Management comes in. "We can do it cheaper." They offer a 5 year contract at much lower rates. The city lays off the workers, sells the garage and the trucks. Five years goes by. Now Waste Management comes in with a price increase; a big price increase. What can the city do? There are no competitors who will do it for less than Waste Management; and to recreate the garbage department will take millions, millions the city does not have. The city has no choice but to pay Waste Management whatever the company wants. This is what happened to my town, and towns all over America. This is the story of privatisation; cheaper in the short term. Ruinous in the long term.
Until we return to building U.S. Navy ships in U.S. Navy Shipyards we are going to remain in the fix we are in.
I've said it before...the Roman Republic may have had a point when they required their political leaders to alternate between elected offices and military field commands. Having skin in the game encouraged good decision-making.
Well, until we slash the Army and give the savings to the Navy; and make the Air and Space Forces subordinate to the Navy, we probably won't get the deterrence we need.
Deterrence isn't working, at least in the Horn of Africa... Clearly, the Houthi don't mind firing off the rockets they get for free from Russia, causing Israel and the US to deplete expensive defensive missiles (and missiles that are in short supply with very long lead times - especially for the US). They know that the US lacks the will to attack Yemen, seek out the launch sites and destroy them and kill the people launching.
Likewise with the Pirates - under 'international law' they have to be given trials either in the country they are from (whut?) or in the country of the nation that captures them (the Southern District of New York?). Right, like they will actually be tried fairly.
Want to deter them? Great! Launch some TLAMs at Sana'a, hang some pirates (that slow naval hanging, too). Or, wreck their boats and toss them over the side. It's hard world, and even harder when you're stupid: Time for the US to not be stupid.
You know...this "piracy" stik is really getting old. Israel is at war with...Yemen. Yemen is attacking the shipping of their PUBLICLY declaired enemy (Israel). America is NO where here and if the USN does get involved then, yes thats piracy...by the USN. 17th Century Admirals can even see these legal realities so we have less excuse...
"The Soviets are neither as strong as they appear yet not as weak as they appear." or such as attributed to Churchill. They relished to role of "Crazy Ivan" in conjunction with their nukes as they lacked an additional credible deterrent in that era. That presumed level of unpredictability certainly had our attention during the Cold War. In the end, we were hoping they loved their children more and they hoped US M.A.D-ness never to be provoked. Dangerously imperfect détente, but it was the effect of strategic deterrence.
The problem is analogous to a poorly run household. Over time you accept the dingy and dirty not even realizing it’s dirty and dingy. By being removed from a dingy or dirty household, a person can regain perspective and see how squalid they have been living. Same thing with the Navy.
"I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says of Joe Biden. Astute observation then, sad reality now.
The ignorence here is almost painful...maybe call your local Saudi Arabia Embassy. Legitimate goverments negotiate cease fires and peace treaties and that is what Saudi Arabia is doing right now. Yemen is doing what Washington DC NEVER does...follow international law and publicly declare a state of war. Tell me how our illigal bases in Syria fit that definition. We have NO legal status in this real legal war. Israel has a navy so they can go fight their enemy themselves...
So well said, especially the top-5. Sigh.
Jerry Hendrix has a more extensive and detailed article in a recent National Review issue. He analysis of how we got to this bad place gives the background necessary to the means to turn it around. Worth a read.
Once you realize that the goal of the Western - particularly the American - ruling class is the destruction of the West and its middle class, everything they’re doing makes sense. It’s not as though these are stupid people: they’re winning. The problem is not the issues you raise, it’s the refusal by Americans to understand the goals of our overlords and our unwillingness to do anything about those goals - or them.
Stating / Re-stating the obvious: Having a severe case of "twenty years ago-itis" seems to be rampant at the senior levels of DoD and the State Department. We think we are what we were 20 years ago and act as if everyone else thinks we are as well. Well, we aren't what we were in quantity, quality, and sustainability and the rest of the world knows it. Haven't read the Hendrix article yet, but suspect the amount of time required to turn things around is something we will not have.
If we want to learn how to manage the construction of warships, we need to get the US back in the business of building warships. Time to return the few naval shipyards we have left to the business of building ships.
It is privatization that got us here.
Here's an analogy. A small town has a garbage department. City workers have been hauling trash for decades, and they earn a good chunk of change. The city has been buying garbage trucks, and running a truck repair lot since 1927.
Waste Management comes in. "We can do it cheaper." They offer a 5 year contract at much lower rates. The city lays off the workers, sells the garage and the trucks. Five years goes by. Now Waste Management comes in with a price increase; a big price increase. What can the city do? There are no competitors who will do it for less than Waste Management; and to recreate the garbage department will take millions, millions the city does not have. The city has no choice but to pay Waste Management whatever the company wants. This is what happened to my town, and towns all over America. This is the story of privatisation; cheaper in the short term. Ruinous in the long term.
Until we return to building U.S. Navy ships in U.S. Navy Shipyards we are going to remain in the fix we are in.
National Review: https://apple.news/ArW3OsA47QLq83m_G-xYJGQ
You will never know when you have paid too much for defense, you will only know when you have paid too little.
I've said it before...the Roman Republic may have had a point when they required their political leaders to alternate between elected offices and military field commands. Having skin in the game encouraged good decision-making.
Well, until we slash the Army and give the savings to the Navy; and make the Air and Space Forces subordinate to the Navy, we probably won't get the deterrence we need.
Deterrence isn't working, at least in the Horn of Africa... Clearly, the Houthi don't mind firing off the rockets they get for free from Russia, causing Israel and the US to deplete expensive defensive missiles (and missiles that are in short supply with very long lead times - especially for the US). They know that the US lacks the will to attack Yemen, seek out the launch sites and destroy them and kill the people launching.
Likewise with the Pirates - under 'international law' they have to be given trials either in the country they are from (whut?) or in the country of the nation that captures them (the Southern District of New York?). Right, like they will actually be tried fairly.
Want to deter them? Great! Launch some TLAMs at Sana'a, hang some pirates (that slow naval hanging, too). Or, wreck their boats and toss them over the side. It's hard world, and even harder when you're stupid: Time for the US to not be stupid.
You know...this "piracy" stik is really getting old. Israel is at war with...Yemen. Yemen is attacking the shipping of their PUBLICLY declaired enemy (Israel). America is NO where here and if the USN does get involved then, yes thats piracy...by the USN. 17th Century Admirals can even see these legal realities so we have less excuse...
"The Soviets are neither as strong as they appear yet not as weak as they appear." or such as attributed to Churchill. They relished to role of "Crazy Ivan" in conjunction with their nukes as they lacked an additional credible deterrent in that era. That presumed level of unpredictability certainly had our attention during the Cold War. In the end, we were hoping they loved their children more and they hoped US M.A.D-ness never to be provoked. Dangerously imperfect détente, but it was the effect of strategic deterrence.
The problem is analogous to a poorly run household. Over time you accept the dingy and dirty not even realizing it’s dirty and dingy. By being removed from a dingy or dirty household, a person can regain perspective and see how squalid they have been living. Same thing with the Navy.
Per the article's sub-title: “80% of success is showing up” — Woody Allen
https://sfaldin.medium.com/what-woody-allens-showing-up-quote-really-means-ee743f0adbbb
"I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says of Joe Biden. Astute observation then, sad reality now.
The ignorence here is almost painful...maybe call your local Saudi Arabia Embassy. Legitimate goverments negotiate cease fires and peace treaties and that is what Saudi Arabia is doing right now. Yemen is doing what Washington DC NEVER does...follow international law and publicly declare a state of war. Tell me how our illigal bases in Syria fit that definition. We have NO legal status in this real legal war. Israel has a navy so they can go fight their enemy themselves...