A recent Pravda headline stated, “USA absolutely defenseless against possible attack from Russia or China.” Of course, this headline seems ludicrous to most Americans. But there is nothing ludicrous about it. In 1998 a leading Russian military defector told me that Russia and China could combine to defeat the United States in a future war. Yes, such a war is possible, even if the Americans think it’s some kind of joke. According to Pravda, “No matter how mighty it may seem, the United States of America is defenseless in the face of an external enemy. Neither the U.S. Army nor the National Guard will be able to rebuff a sudden attack due to the lack of military training and equipment.”
Pravda’s assessment of American strategic vulnerability refers to a 400-page study “prepared by the independent committee which the U.S. Congress set up to test the battling capacity of the national Armed Forces.” According to Pravda, “Any unexpected attack against the USA with the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons will become fatal for the [Americans]….”
Whatever your opinion of the War in Iraq, the most strategically significant result of the war has nothing to do with Iraq. Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has admitted that the U.S. military commitment to Iraq and Afghanistan “may have undermined the military’s ability to fight wars against major adversaries….” The U.S. military has changed its focus, losing sight of the real enemy – the most dangerous enemy of all.
The danger from Russia and China is not well understood. To complicate matters further, there is a new, rising incompetence in Washington. There is blindness in the governing class, a lack of understanding, an unwillingness to work with facts, a falsification of meanings, and fatal disregard for historical truth. Enemies are not recognized as enemies. Subversion is not recognized as subversion. Madness goes about in the guise of political correctness.
There are, of course, flashes of truth and moments of recognition. On the night of the Feb. 5th presidential primary, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch told an interviewer that he feared America could lose the economic wherewithal to sustain its armed forces. The interviewer completely ignored the senator’s statement. It wasn’t something journalists are ready to take seriously. Even so, the senator offered up a warning. He had begun thinking about the military budget and the prospect of declining revenues. You might say that the “writing is on the wall.” The U.S. dollar is falling, the banks are in trouble, the stock market is ready to tumble, the housing bubble is bursting. What will happen to the economy? What will happen to the military?
In recent testimony, National Director of Intelligence Michael McConnell told Congress that Russia, China and OPEC could use their growing financial power to advance strategic goals damaging to U.S. national interests. According to McConnell, American intelligence was concerned “about the financial capabilities of Russia, China and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to political ends.” In other words: The enemy has cash, and cash can buy people and companies.
The reader might say that America also has cash with which to buy people and companies. But the United States has never possessed a fully competent espionage apparatus. The Russians, on the other hand, always penetrate their enemies. To understand the power of Russia, one must understand the power of controlling intelligence information. On this basis, the Russians can do spectacular things with very little money. On the other side, the Americans can do almost nothing with vast sums. This makes the United States and its allies vulnerable.
Consider the breaking story about the new chairman of NATO’s intelligence committee, Sandor Laborc. As a Communist Hungarian intelligence officer he spent six years training with the KGB. He also has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. We all know that Russia complained bitterly about Hungary’s admission into NATO. But Russia’s complaints are purely theatrical. The former Communist countries are riddled with secret KGB-aligned structures that take their marching orders from Moscow. Therefore, it is easy to see that NATO has admitted several Trojan Horses inside its defensive perimeter. Russia has urged this process forward through reverse psychology. They have protested NATO expansion every step of the way. All the while, East Bloc agents were getting inside of NATO.
It is unreasonable to think that Laborc is a democrat committed to the free market system. As a friend of Putin, as a KGB-trained spy, he is certain to pass NATO secrets to the Kremlin. Yet, NATO officials are not moving to reject Laborc’s presence as chairman of the intelligence committee. News reports indicate that “not a single ambassador” to NATO has protested Laborc’s sensitive posting. The meaning of this event is manifold, and will escape the attention of the vast majority of Europeans and Americans. NATO is defenseless. NATO has become stupid.
