Smart Hawks

This point is becoming increasingly accepted in defense circles. Defense experts at places like Washington’s Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments have been sounding the alarm on it for years, and now the Pentagon is starting to say the same thing. Even Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has gotten into the act. In a speech at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., in September, for instance, Hagel warned that “we are entering an era where American dominance on the seas, in the skies, and in space — not to mention cyberspace — can no longer be taken for granted. . . . If we don’t take these challenges seriously, now, our military could arrive in a future combat theater facing an arsenal of advanced, disruptive technologies that thwart our technological advantages, limit our freedom of maneuver, and put American lives at risk.” In other words, U.S. conventional supremacy isn’t a given, and if our defense planners don’t get on top of this problem, we will be taking an enormous risk.

Read the full piece at National Review.