Helprin's Take on American Weakness

Sorry, I read the article and one specific statement loses him all credibility. And this is it:

This confusion has come at the price of transforming the military into a light and hollow semi-gendarmerie focused on irregular warfare and ill-equipped to deter the development and resurgence of the conventional and strategic forces of China and Russia, while begging challenges from rivals or enemies no longer constrained by our former reserves of strength.

How does he manage to type this with his head so far up his ass? Is he really advocating we go back to the cold war model of military strategy? Considering nearly all modern analysis by those actually looking at the wars/conflicts we may be involved in, the majority seem to conclude that fourth generation warfare is far more likely than third.

He also make a major mistake in assuming that because a military learns how to deal with irregular warfare means they are incapable of dealing with major battles. This guy couldn't be more wrong. Armor and Air superiority are still arenas that the US will never be bested in unless Russia somehow figures out how to jump ahead, and that appears unlikely with the present economy. As for China, they seem to need to steal or buy the technology, since they consistently prove their inability to innovate.

He seems to have missed the recent news, from oh say the past year, on how Iraq has been doing as well.

His conclusion strikes me as he's likely building a fallout shelter in his back yard.

But the costs of not reacting to China's military expansion, which could lead to its hegemony in the Pacific; or of ignoring a Russian resurgence, which could result in a new Cold War and Russian domination of Europe; or of suffering a nuclear detonation in New York, Washington, or any other major American city, would be so great as to be, apparently, unimaginable to us now. Which is why, perhaps, we have not even begun to think about marshaling the resources, concentration, deliberation, risk, sacrifice, and compromise necessary to avert them. This is the great decision to which the West is completely blind, and for neglect of which it will in the future grieve exceedingly.

I'd advise the dried beans, rice and a really good water filtration system. Oh, and make sure you're at least 6' below the surface. That way you're ensured continued detachment from reality.