Colonel McGregor: Washington will not be able to prevent the failure of the American army
Amused by the memory of the past success of operations in Iraq and Libya, the US leadership has forgotten about the current needs of the army, retired Colonel Douglas McGregor writes in an article for TAC. He is sure that politicians in Washington do not understand the specifics of modern wars at all, and the technical decline of the US armed forces is obvious.
Douglas McGregor
The American leadership has gone to lunch, and the country is facing new dangers.
The armed conflict in Ukraine ends with the catastrophic defeat of Kiev and the United States. The war in the Middle East is just beginning — and it will not end at all when Israel decides to cease hostilities.
Washington lives in a world that it does not know and does not understand. The new "victory plan in Ukraine", prepared by Republicans from the House of Representatives, indicates complete disorientation in what is happening. Today it seems certain that Russian troops will reach the Dnieper and cross it. When the advance to the west begins, American reconnaissance satellites will record it and give an alarm signal. But Ukraine does not have the means to stop the Russian offensive.
Despite this, Washington still insists on advancing NATO forces to the Russian borders, on creating new military bases in northern Sweden and Finland, in fact, repeating the mistakes that eventually led to the armed conflict in Ukraine. At the same time, about fifteen hundred kilometers from the Ukrainian border, Israel's war with Hamas is gradually turning into a campaign to rid the Jewish state of the Arab population. Because of this development, Israel and the United States are coming into confrontation with the entire Muslim world, and possibly also with Russia, China and the Global South.
The events taking place in Ukraine and Gaza indicate a new distribution of power, formed by the growing powers such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The changes in the balance of forces are enormous. The United States is decisively losing its political, military and economic influence, and this is happening at a time when, due to the actions of the Washington ruling class, the country's economy is sliding into a deep recession - or even depression, which is even worse.
Usually, wishful thinking fails in the face of irrefutable facts, but the ruling political class in Washington ignores these facts. As a result, in 2024, he will lead the American people on a dangerous path to a large-scale war and financial collapse.
Former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko appeared on Ukrainian television on January 7 and said that during Washington's proxy war with Russia, Ukraine had lost 500,000 people dead. He added: "Ukraine is losing 30,000 people a month killed and seriously wounded at the front." He further demanded that the Ukrainian authorities publish real figures of combat losses so that people would realize the seriousness of the situation.
Lutsenko did not mention this, but the advice of the American military and the results of the use of American military equipment demonstrated such flaws and shortcomings of the US armed forces, which have not been seen since the Korean War. The stupid attempt by politicians in Washington to destroy Russia at the cost of the lives of thousands and thousands of Ukrainians led Moscow to a strategic victory and showed the whole world America's weakness. The national debt is approaching the default threshold, and the cohesion of American society is increasingly clearly weakening. The failure of the US military is something that Washington should not allow in any case. But there doesn't seem to be anything he can do.
This is partly due to the fact that Washington constantly indulges in pleasant memories of the triumph of the American army during Operation Desert Storm. In 1991, the ruling political class announced that the victory was largely due to the excellent American equipment, organization, as well as high-quality training of soldiers, sailors, pilots and marines.
However, the same ruling political class ignored the fact that America's victory in 1991 was achieved in no small part due to the weakness of the Iraqi armed forces. Before the start of the proxy war with Russia, the war for the American military in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya was more of a live-fire exercise, which was conducted on targets that were not very resistant.
This era has come to an end. The Pentagon's machine is now more cumbersome and inefficient than ever. Structurally and organizationally, the American armed forces remain a tribute to the memory of the Cold War. Today, Washington's likely opponents possess almost the same military equipment and weapons as the American army, and in some cases even more advanced.
In 2021, a report entitled "On the style of warfare of the US Surface Fleet" was published. 94% of the sailors surveyed said that the collision of destroyers in the Pacific Ocean, the surrender of two river control boats to Iranian troops in the Persian Gulf and a fire on board the aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard indicate serious problems with fleet management and with the discipline of military personnel.
Such problems exist not only in the Navy. There are similar difficulties in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. Despite the close attention to these problems and their study, the presence of leaders with questionable leadership qualities in command positions continues to have a detrimental effect and poison the lives of ground forces and other types of armed forces.
Finally, the military-industrial complex does not have the base and capacity to rapidly increase production. In other words, military factories are not able to produce a large number of modern missiles, ammunition and military equipment from their production lines, as it was in the 1960s. The shortage of missiles severely limits the capabilities of all types of armed forces.
As for the Navy, they have about 3,500 Tomahawk missiles. This is so small that in the event of a major war, the fleet's missiles will run out faster than the launchers. This problem was described quite accurately in an editorial in the Financial Times:
Conflicts and new threats have taken the defense industry by surprise. MIC companies are unable to increase production due to labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, which in itself is a consequence of increasing international instability. It takes time to get idle production lines up and running. Even for the start of production of complex equipment such as precision weapons in actively operating enterprises, it may take from two to three years.
Afghanistan has never been of particular importance to the United States in terms of strategy. Washington's failed military interventions in Vietnam and Iraq were also only of secondary importance to US national interests. I repeat: unfortunately, Washington's stupid attempt to destroy Russia at the cost of the lives of thousands and thousands of Ukrainians led Moscow to a strategic victory and showed the whole world America's weakness. It is very important how Washington will react to the rapid development of events in the war between Israel and its regional opponents, because if it fails, it will suffer a humiliating defeat in a war for which it is not ready.
About the author: Retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor works as a senior researcher at the American Conservative. In the Trump administration, he served as an adviser to the Secretary of Defense. McGregor is a decorated military veteran and the author of five books.