US National Defense Strategy regurgitates the same old cliches contained in the National Security Strategy document!

Ensuring Socio-economic Justice

Crescent International

Rabi' al-Thani 05, 1444 2022-10-31

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

Coming on the heels of the US National Security Strategy document (released on October 12), the National Defense Strategy (NDS) is virtually a rehash of the NSS.

Keeping America great (Donald Trump wanted to make American great again [MAGA]!), the NDS, released on October 27 claims US leadership “has undergirded international peace and prosperity” for seven decades.

And how has it done that?

By having “a strong, principled, and adaptive US military,” which is proclaimed as “a central pillar for US leadership, particularly in the face of challenges arising from dramatic geopolitical, technological, economic, and environmental change.”

People around the world can be forgiven if they point out that they have not seen any peace or prosperity for decades.

They have been the victims of US militarism that has rained death and destruction upon them.

True, militarism is not a peculiarly American trait but with its massive military budget ($813 billion annually) that exceeds the combined spending of the next ten countries, the US is not so much a democracy as it is a military dictatorship.

The military devours ever-greater share of the country’s budget but with little to show for it.

The US military has suffered successive defeats in Afghanistan and Iraq and it is not faring too well in other places either, be it Syria or Yemen.

True, it has enormous destructive capacity but it is unable to achieve America’s military or political objectives.

So, why shovel tons of additional money at a behemoth that is unable to function properly?

The reason is simple. The US is ruled by oligarchs.

Their aim is not win wars per se. It is to make money by fooling the people.

This is done by scaring them about imaginary enemies.

It was Russia during the decades of the 1960s to 1980s; Muslims became the new enemy after the demise of the Soviet Union.

Today, China is projected as enemy number one.

While China may not be everyone’s favourite country, it has not invaded other people’s lands for centuries.

The US has.

In fact, in its 246-year history, the US has been at war for at least 224 years.

That can hardly qualify for title as “peaceful” country.

In order to justify trillions of dollars on military spending, the oligarchs must launch endless wars.

This was spelled out in the NSS document and now repeated in the NDS.

Muslims will probably heave a collective sigh of relief that they have been replaced, though not completely removed, from the US’ enemy list.

Let us review some of the actions spelled out in the NDS document.

“The Department [of Defense] will focus on safeguarding and advancing vital US national interests. We will work alongside other agencies and departments to:

• ► Protect the security of the American people;
• ► Expand economic prosperity and opportunity; and
• ► Realize and defend the values at the heart of American way of life.

“The 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) sets forth how the US military will meet growing threats to vital US national security interests and to a stable and open international system. It directs the Department to act urgently to sustain and strengthen US deterrence, with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the Department’s pacing challenge.

“The strategy identifies four top-level defense priorities that the Department must pursue to strengthen deterrence.

“First, we will defend the homeland.

“Second, we will deter strategic attacks against the United States, our Allies, and our partners.

“Third, we will deter aggression and be prepared to prevail in conflict when necessary.

“Fourth, to ensure our future military advantage, we will build a resilient Joint Force and defense ecosystem.”

The NDS also admits to developing more lethal nuclear weapons for use against enemies.

The US is the only country in the world to have used nuclear weapons on Japan in August 1945 killing hundreds of thousands of people.

It also used depleted uranium shells in Iraq in January 1991, again killing tens of thousands of civilians.

Iraq’s soil and water were permanently contaminated.

Iraqi women still give birth to horrifically deformed babies three decades after the use of depleted uranium.

American war-mongers have learnt no lessons from those barbaric acts, as the latest NDS document makes clear.

It also candidly admits that it “will act urgently to build enduring advantages across the defense ecosystem – the Department of Defense, the defense industrial base, and the array of private sector and academic enterprises that create and sharpen the Joint Force’s technological edge.”

The “array of private sector… enterprises” is an admission of the mercenaries the US uses in different countries.

Blackwater immediately comes to mind.

It has undergone many name changes and currently operates under the label Constellis.

America was and remains a country ruled by barbarians and war criminals.

The only redeeming feature in this entire depressing scenario is that the US military is totally incompetent.

American soldiers are unmotivated and unable to perform the tasks assigned to them.