The Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy is a a dangerous document filled with simplistic, fantastical notions masquerading as harsh realism.
https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/23/2003864773/-1/-1/0/2026-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY.PDF
At the end, there is a truly fantastical portion about supercharging the US military industrial complex with no plan about how to achieve this in reality in the environment of a collapsing dollar, soaring debt, a shrinking manufacturing base, an out of date research base, run down universities, massive corruption and a trade war.
How to pay for the US military expansion without creating hyperinflation? Can an island like Madagascar afford a 1 trillion dollar military? Can the US afford 1,5 trillion for the Pentagon? A trillion for ICE when its economy is sinking under debt and its manufacturing collapsing? No.
When military aggressive projected around the globe undermines the dollar, it is counter productive.
Yet, that is what the document advocates under the guise of protecting the "Western hemisphere."
There is some dim awareness that the US economy and military power is very weak in 2026 because the document states the US will offer "more limited" support to its allies and claims it will not actively seek a war with China.
However, the document continues to advocate limitless aggression against US s neigbours in the Western hemisphere and against Iran and Russia.
Iran is China s ally and source of oil. Russia is too.
The Pentagon cannot attack China s global oil supply and trade routes and claim it wants peace with China.
Yet, the Department of War document does not make the connection.
It does make the connection between its attacks on oil tankers and the BRICS now forming a naval alliance.
There is no mention of hypersonic missiles in the entire document of 34 pages.
These are the new strategic weapons which can sink US aircraft carriers.
This is a gamechanger. China, Russia and Iran have these missiles
Yet, the document omits all mention of these weapons and how US military strategy must change to accomodate these weapons.
The are are only three mentions of missiles in general in the entire document and , all in the context of the US needing to develop missile defence systems....
But how to do this with a run down military industrial and research base and no money? How?
There is one mention of drones.
No mentions of satellites.
Only two mentions of space.
The document shows a complete ignorance as to the new economic and financial realities which are the constraints for US military power.
The authors do not understand basic economic concepts, what currencies are and what valuations in currencies are.
The document makes the false claim that "our NATO allies are substantially more powerful than Russia—it is not even close. Germany’s economy alone dwarfs that of Russia. "
Unfortunately, the economies are measured in the collapsing, overvalued dollar.
This is not an objective measure. Yet, the authors assume the dollar value is the objective evaluation of actual, real world military industrial capacity.
A dollar evaluation of economies is especially meaningless in 2026 as the dollar falls in relation to other currencies. One dollar may soon be worth one Rouble or 100 Roubles as inflation and hyperinflation accelerate.
The gigantic dollar quanitities attributed to NATO and the US do not translate into military power as the defeat of their proxy, the Ukraine shows.
They certainly do not translate in an advantage of 26 to 2 as the document suggests.
In fact, the amount of ammo Russia produces compared to NATO is about he ratio of 13 to 1 in 2026.
The opposite.
None of these harsh realities are in the document.
The small dollar quantity attributed to Russia does not factor in the overwhelming Russian military power as its victory over the US, NATO proxy in the Ukraine shows.
The eastern NATO members cnnot muster any meaningful military force let alone manage or defeat Russia. They only can extend the war by conscriptin to the point where Russia nukes them or the public revolt
The document is more like a PR brochure but it is not clear for which audience it is designed.
The amount of flattery in it to Donald Trump and big colourful pictures suggests it is designed for an audience of one, for Trump himself.
Only someone as mentally limited as Trump would fail to see the reasoning in the document is fundamentally flawed and themost vital objective parts of reality have been edited out altogether to produce a lop sided, biased, delusional defense strategy.
The danger is Trump will act on this.
https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/23/2003864773/-1/-1/0/2026-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY.PDF
From media
The US will offer "more limited" support to its allies, according to the Pentagon's new National Defense Strategy.
In a significant shift to its security priorities, the US Department of Defense now considers security of the US homeland and Western Hemisphere - not China - as its primary concern.
By comparison, previous versions of the defence strategy - published once every four years - named the "multi-domain threat" posed by China as the top defence priority for the US.
The new strategy reinforces recent comments made by US President Donald Trump, including calls for greater "burden-sharing" from US allies in countering threats posed by Russia and North Korea.
Instead, it says allies, especially Europe, "will take the lead against threats that are less severe for us but more so for them".
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, is described as a "persistent but manageable threat to NATO's eastern members".
Relations with China are to be approached through "strength, not confrontation", the report says. The goal "is not to dominate China; nor is it to strangle or humiliate them".
Unlike in previous versions of the strategy, Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by China, is not mentioned. However, the document does write that the US aims to "prevent anyone, including China, from being able to dominate us or our allies".
Late last year, the US announced a vast arms sale to Taiwan worth $11bn (£8.2bn), leading China to hold military drills around the island in response.
The strategy also outlines a "more limited" role for US deterrence of North Korea. South Korea is "capable of taking primary responsibility" for the task, it adds.
In the 12 months since Trump began his second term as president, the US has seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, carried out strikes against alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, and more recently, applied pressure on US allies to acquire Greenland.
The strategy reiterates that the Pentagon "will guarantee US military and commercial access to key terrain, especially the Panama Canal, Gulf of America, and Greenland".
The document says the Trump administration's approach will be "fundamentally different from the grandiose strategies of the past post–Cold War administrations".
It adds: "Out with utopian idealism; in with hardnosed realism."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9r8ezym3ro
https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/23/2003864773/-1/-1/0/2026-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY.PDF
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