Obviously, the world is a messy place. But what stresses American policymakers? It’s not the problem of defending America. In fact, that’s rather easy and doesn’t require either constant war or pervasive stress.
No other country has a conventional capability to reach America. The United States enjoys the protection of large oceans in the east and west that are buttressed by overwhelming maritime superiority. America also benefits from Pacific neighbors north and south and is backed by air superiority. Thus, the United States will not be invaded. It will not be blockaded or bombarded. In this way, the national security adviser—along with the president, secretary of state and other U.S. officials—need not worry about the sort of potential threats facing virtually every other nation on earth. That includes America’s chief rivals, China and Russia.
Only the latter two countries possess nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles, with the theoretical will to use their arsenals against America. Both would be destroyed in return, which makes such a conflict unthinkable....In other words, the US has no national defense issues other than domestic terrorist attack. National security issues are virtually all in excess of national defense and are based on projecting power internationally.
The National Interest
Goodbye Susan Rice, Hello National Security Options
Doug Bandow | Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and a former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan
See also
Haley told reporters, "Our goal with the administration is to show value at the UN, and the way to show value is to show our strength, show our full voice. Have the backs of our allies and make sure our allies have our backs as well."
She then added, "For those who don't have our backs, we're taking names, and we will make points to respond to that accordingly."
Continuing in Samantha Powers' footsteps.
What is it with America? Is arrogance in the blood or in the water?
CNN
US Ambassador Nikki Haley at UN: 'We're taking names'
Richard Roth, CNN
US Ambassador Nikki Haley at UN: 'We're taking names'
Richard Roth, CNN
2 comments:
"No other country has a conventional capability to reach America. The United States enjoys the protection of large oceans in the east and west that are buttressed by overwhelming maritime superiority. "
As the joke goes, the eastern seaboard has to be defended from cod, and the western seaboard has to be defended from tuna. The threat from Canada or Mexico is no more than that encountered from cod or tuna.
Militarily, the US is as safe as it can be. It'd be just as safe if the military budget were cut by 90%. But the defence budget, as we all know, has nothing to do with defence. It is an offensive, now hegemonic, capability and a way of channeling trillions of dollars into the private sector. It is the worst kind of crony capitalism because it is so dangerous, internationally and domestically.
Not to mention all those nukes poised for retaliation.
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