Wilkerson goes full SNAFU Blog on the endless war on terror. Welcome to the party pal!!!

Thanks to GD for the link!

via Breitbart.

Wilkerson argued that maintaining a presence in Afghanistan or conducting presence operations around the world that are not existential was wearing down the military’s ability to fight in future existential wars, such as against China.

“When you spend 17 years in Afghanistan and don’t fire your main tank gun, don’t fire your 8″ Howitzer or your 155 Howitzer, don’t fire your MLRS or anything else, you atrophy in terms of your ability to fight in an existential or near-existential conflict,” he said.

“Or when you do nothing but Freedom of Navigation exercises … and suddenly you’re thrust into a real naval battle on the high seas, and you don’t have enough escorts even to rescue your own people off a carrier, you’re in trouble,” he said.

He said the ongoing wars in Afghanistan — which entered its eighteenth year last week — has already taken a heavy toll on the one percent of Americans who serve in the nation’s military.

“Only one percent is bleeding and dying for the rest of us,” he said. “Many of those one percent would say, ‘Well, that’s fine.  That’s all right. I don’t mind that.’ Scratch them a little deeper, and see if they don’t mind that.”

Story and vid here. 

I think the F-35 is the biggest procurement scandal in the history of our country.  I also think that it's part and parcel of our war on terror.

This and the prior generation of generals will be castrated by future historians for the fight in the Middle East.  Future historians will blame them and their politician  enablers for wasting US treasure in lives and money to fight wars that were NOT in our national interest.

Even worse is this passage from his talk...

Given the array of really big threats out there, and the way we have spent our military on the peripheries of our empire, doing things less than existential — and in some cases, less than approved by the American people — can we do this or are we going to get caught short, and either have 10 or 15 or 20 times the casualties we should have?

“Or maybe, maybe even lose? That’s the ultimate question about what we’re doing today, and we aren’t ready yet to confront that question,” he added.

Drink that in ladies and gentlemen.

Wilkerson is parroting what we've been saying on this blog for months if not years.

We're wasting time building primitive societies while China gears up to fight us straight up.

A short few more years and they'll be able to bloody us so badly (if not win outright) that we will be forced to resort to nuclear weapons.  But even that might not be enough.

Would any politician, military official or the public launch nukes to protect Taiwan?  How about the Philippines?  What if they make a run against Vietnam again?  Would we risk all out nuclear war to protect lands that aren't our own?

I don't think so.

But we will put an under equipped Navy and Marine Corps (operating with questionable concepts) in harm's way along with the Air Force and Army to stem the Chinese horde running thru the Pacific like a plague of locusts.

We need to get smart.  We need to get to work.  We need to be frugal and realistic.  We can still beat the Chinese but the window to get it done is fading fast.

The only thing that gives me hope is that if Wilkerson sees this then that means it'll be conventional wisdom soon.