Conservative American think tank attacks Biden: ‘weakest US military ever’ Dozens killed in airstrike during concert in Myanmar

Highly detailed and the results devastating: this is how an ultra-conservative American think tank’s investigation into the state of the US military can be summed up. For the past nine years, the Washington-based Heritage Foundation has published an annual analysis of the state of US troops. This year, after about 600 pages, the authors concluded that they were “too weak” to do justice to the necessary tasks.

However, the report, entitled Index of US Military Strength, should be read with caution. Because its publication coincides with the final phase of the election campaign for the midterm elections. Military and veterans are an important constituency. Surprisingly, only conservative and Trump-related US media outlets have reported on the devastating result so far, including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News and Newsmax stations.

In addition, the press spokesperson for the “Heritage Foundation” left no doubt about a possible political thrust of the investigation. He noted on Twitter, “The military is the weakest of all time under Joe Biden.” The report evaluates the US military based on years of development. The administration of President Joe Biden has only been in office for two years.

Poorly prepared for the nuclear case

“The current US military is at significant risk of failing to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict,” the report said. “Defending America’s vital national interests” is currently not possible. The military is “too weak” in terms of “the strength needed for defense”.

In their own words, the authors weigh up the ‘national interests on the world stage’ on the one hand and the ‘actual challenges in the world’ on the other. But the world is not as you would like. The US military’s identified weakness is, among other things, “the logical consequence of years of heavy use, underfunding, miserably defined priorities.”

In particular, the United States Air Force, the United States Air Force, is classified as “very weak”. The navy and space unit “Space Force” as “weak”, the US military as “marginal”, ie only operational to a limited extent. The elite unit, the “Marine Corps”, and the nuclear forces are rated “strong”. In an emergency, however, the Marines would not be able to make up for the weakness of the rest of the army.

The authors are particularly concerned about the need for the United States to use nuclear weapons. For such an escalation would certainly require “a fully operational joint force” equipped with modern weapons. The war in Ukraine in particular shows that certain actors (in this case Russia) “cannot necessarily be deterred from conventional measures”, even though the US is a strong nuclear power. Even the allies don’t help much when in doubt. While the authors cite Germany’s new investments in the Bundeswehr, they come to the conclusion: “Germany does not currently have a battle-ready division.”

The world situation has become extremely worse

Admittedly, this harsh verdict is the opinion of a Washington think tank that is also close to Republicans. But reports from previous years have also been critical of the US military’s lack of capability. According to the Stockholm-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), US military spending will reach $801 billion by 2021. This is a decrease of 1.4 percent compared to 2020. The share of the military budget in gross domestic product (GDP) decreased slightly from 3.7 percent to 3.5 percent in the same period.

The US still has by far the largest military budget in the world. According to SIPRI, China spent $293 billion in 2021, representing a growth of 4.7 percent from 2020. Russia increased its military spending by 2.9 percent to $65.9 billion in 2021, surpassing its share. the US in 2021 with 4.1 percent of GDP.

The fact is that the world situation has changed drastically in recent years. Not least because of the Russian war of aggression, the US faces at least two major challenges. If the two biggest rivals rearm, according to the authors’ logic, the US cannot stagnate or even disarm.

In addition to Russian aggression in Europe, China is sequestering major US forces in the Pacific. States such as Iran and North Korea also require potential military preparedness. There are also attacks in cyberspace, which regularly threaten US infrastructure (eg oil pipelines). The authors take the United States’ ability to successfully deal with two wars or crises simultaneously as a benchmark for their assessment.

Biden as a weak commander in chief

Republicans are grateful for the devastating mid-campaign ruling for the upcoming midterm elections. Soldiers and veterans are more likely to vote for the Grand Old Party than the Democrats. Congressman Mike Gallagher used an appearance at the Heritage Foundation mid-week for a blanket settlement towards the Pentagon and the White House: “We’re not short of options, we’re lacking leadership.”

They don’t understand the “paradox of deterrence”. “To avoid war, you have to convince your opponent that you are both able and willing to go to war,” Gallagher said. He warned of Chinese President Xi Jinping and a Chinese attack on Taiwan: “If we continue on the utopian path of disarmament and we let the fear of an escalation (…) invite the war itself.”

The statement fits the image that Donald Trump and many Republicans draws regularly from President Joe Biden — especially since the desolate withdrawal of the Americans from Afghanistan, ordered by Trump after his lost election: As Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces, Biden was “incompetent.”

Think tank proximity to the US defense industry

So how serious is the “Heritage Foundation” report? Critics such as the Berlin-based non-governmental organization Transparency International have criticized the way the Washington think tank is working on military issues. A 2019 transparency report on the US defense industry’s entanglements in US politics speaks of “at least 15 meetings between Lockheed Martin executives and senior investigators from the Heritage Foundation”.

It involved supporting the financing of the F-22 fighter jet. «The Heritage Foundation’s publications paralleled Lockheed Martin’s lobbying efforts (…)» In 2008, Lockheed Martin donated $40,000 to the Heritage Foundation, according to Transparency. Indeed, the “Foundation Heritage” is now more transparent than before with regard to its financing.

The conservative think tank has also been subject to a lot of political criticism for some time. A recent Washington Post op-ed described how the “conservative think tank is turning away from Reagan and toward Trump”. The “Heritage Foundation” is also referred to as the “News Week of Think Tanks”. Once an institution, “Newsweek” magazine, after a long downturn, now draws attention mainly with conspiracy theories.

The Heritage Foundation makes no secret of its greatest concern. Its own mission is to “formulate and promote conservative government policies”. This is based on “principles of free enterprise, limited government influence, individual liberty, traditional American values ​​and strong national defense”. The report on the weaknesses of the US military should not fail to have an impact on the conservative electorate.

sources: