nhboy
Ubi bene ibi patria
democracyarsenal.org: Woops: Defending Defense Cohort Makes Case for Reducing Defense Spending
"The United States has the most powerful military in the world. No other country comes close to matching our military might.
Yet to read the latest Defending Defense report by Heritage, AEI and FPI, one gets the sense that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could easily overwhelm U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific and that China’s modernization efforts far outpace those of the United States. This distortion is a result of the fact that the report fails to take into account U.S. military capabilities, which happen to be vastly superior. And it fails to mention the U.S defense budget, which happens to be about eight times the size of China’s— a particularly awkward omission for a report that was supposed to focus on Chinese military capabilities and the implications for U.S. defense spending.
Instead, the three leading conservative think-tanks focus solely on Chinese forces, attempting to scare readers into thinking that the U.S. needs to spend more, not less on defense. It is zero-sum thinking through and through. And it’s quite dishonest in its representation of Chinese capabilities, particularly when compared to U.S. forces.
We have approximately 325,000 civilian and military personnel assigned to the United States Pacific Command. Oddly, this is never mentioned. The U.S. Pacific Fleet includes five aircraft carrier strike groups, approximately 180 ships and roughly 1,500 aircraft. The Marine Corps has a strong presence in the region, including two Marine Expeditionary Forces. The Army has five Stryker brigades and more than 1,200 Special Forces personnel assigned to its component command. And U.S. Pacific Air Forces maintain over 300 aircraft, with an additional 100 aircraft deployed to Guam. In other words, we have an strong military presence in the region."
"The United States has the most powerful military in the world. No other country comes close to matching our military might.
Yet to read the latest Defending Defense report by Heritage, AEI and FPI, one gets the sense that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could easily overwhelm U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific and that China’s modernization efforts far outpace those of the United States. This distortion is a result of the fact that the report fails to take into account U.S. military capabilities, which happen to be vastly superior. And it fails to mention the U.S defense budget, which happens to be about eight times the size of China’s— a particularly awkward omission for a report that was supposed to focus on Chinese military capabilities and the implications for U.S. defense spending.
Instead, the three leading conservative think-tanks focus solely on Chinese forces, attempting to scare readers into thinking that the U.S. needs to spend more, not less on defense. It is zero-sum thinking through and through. And it’s quite dishonest in its representation of Chinese capabilities, particularly when compared to U.S. forces.
We have approximately 325,000 civilian and military personnel assigned to the United States Pacific Command. Oddly, this is never mentioned. The U.S. Pacific Fleet includes five aircraft carrier strike groups, approximately 180 ships and roughly 1,500 aircraft. The Marine Corps has a strong presence in the region, including two Marine Expeditionary Forces. The Army has five Stryker brigades and more than 1,200 Special Forces personnel assigned to its component command. And U.S. Pacific Air Forces maintain over 300 aircraft, with an additional 100 aircraft deployed to Guam. In other words, we have an strong military presence in the region."
More intellectual Honesty from the Democrats.