Congressional Commission Says US “Not Prepared” For Major War

By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News  

There’s a stark warning from an independent commission set up by Congress to assess the nation’s defense strategy: the US faces the potential for a near-term major war and it is not prepared to fight it. 

   That’s the conclusion of the report from the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, a panel made up of non-governmental experts in national security. The report was issued in July, and there was an open forum on its findings last week hosted by RAND, the nonprofit research organization. RAND provided analytic and administrative support to the commission. 

   “The United States last fought a global conflict during World War II, which ended nearly 80 years ago. The nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago,” the report says. “It is not prepared today.” 

   China and Russia are named as the biggest threats to US influence around the globe. The panel found that China “has largely negated the US military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment.” 

   The report notes that China and Russia’s “no-limits” partnership deal reached in 2022 now includes both Iran and North Korea, an alliance that “creates a real risk, if not likelihood, that conflict anywhere could become a multitheater or global war.” 

   Commission members were sharply critical of the Pentagon, calling its research & development and procurement systems “byzantine”,  and saying that the Defense Department’s “culture of risk avoidance reflect(s) an era of uncontested military dominance.” The report urges that DoD rewrite regulations to speed up the ways it buys weapons.  

   Furthermore, the report says, “the US military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.”