Walter Russell Mead, an Establishment neo-conservative academic and, among other things, member of the Hudson Institute, complains in an op-ed entitled “U.S. Shrugs as World War III Approaches” published in the Wall Street Journal on Sept. 16 that the U.S. is militarily unprepared to fight global war against Russia and China. Mead’s point of reference is the recent report of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, which the Aug. 16 issue of Executive Intelligence Review unfavorably reviewed.
Mead isn’t actually concerned with preventing World War III—a war which could end all of humanity—but, rather, with fighting it. “The bipartisan report details a devastating picture of political failure, strategic inadequacy and growing American weakness in a time of rapidly increasing danger,” Mead writes. “The U.S. faces the ‘most serious and most challenging’ threats since 1945, including the real risk of ‘near-term major war.’ The report warns: ‘The nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago. It is not prepared today.’”
“To summarize, World War III is becoming more likely in the near term, and the U.S. is too weak either to prevent it or, should war come, to be confident of victory,” Mead finds. “A more devastating indictment of a failed generation of national leadership could scarcely be penned.”