Are we losing our advantage because of budgets or flawed strategies?

via AOL Breaking Defense.

BD: What’s the long-term impact?

Dunford: Over the last 10 years our competitive advantage in terms of projecting power when and where we need it has steadily eroded. I’m confident today that we still have a competitive advantage over any single adversary. But I’m equally confident that those advantages are eroding.

To varying degrees Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are all developing capabilities designed to prevent us from operating freely and meeting our alliance commitments. Remember, we are still a nation that acts as a guarantor of the international order, and that carries with it big responsibilities and global interests. So my challenge is to maintain our military readiness today, while also investing in things like cyber security, electronic warfare and increased lethality so that we still have a competitive advantage when we project power in 2022 or 2024. Continuing budget instability and budget caps simply will not allow us to get there (emphasis added). 

Story here. 

The part of the interview with Dunford regarding the Budget Control Act is telling.  But I wonder.  Is the BCA to blame or is it flawed strategy?  I point to a couple of things...

1.  No break from continued fighting.  For whatever reason our Generals have decided to maintain a portion of our forces on a continuous war footing for over a decade now.  That is unsustainable no matter who you are.

2.  Artificially increased ops tempo by pushing more and more forces forward.  Forward presence is now a common refrain for all the services.  Everyone talks about the size of our forces and the budget, but they ignore the commitments we have around the world.  Something has to break.  There is no way that one nation can maintain this many commitments worldwide (and have in place forces to "reassure" allies in as many countries) as we do.

3.  Hate to beat on this drum, but the F-35 and the LCS are two perfect examples of wildly expensive weapon systems that haven't delivered on the promise.  Despite calls to truncate their development many have yelled stay the course and we have...only to now question whether or not they'll ever be worth the effort.

I'm just not convinced.

The BCA is shaping up to be a convenient excuse for failed leadership over the past decade and a half.

The first reform must come from within the military.  If a mission can't be performed instead of nodding yes and saluting smartly perhaps its time to give the Congressmen/women and President the real news.  We can't afford it and you haven't given us an exit strategy.