As NATO begins its 75th anniversary summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Americans should realize that their friends in Europe are scared. This is because of the two-year war in Ukraine, the new nuclear threat from Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a rising alliance of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea that is targeting an America distracted by a brutal presidential election and bitter partisan politics.
Our European allies are looking for a sign of strong American leadership, not just rhetoric. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s recently passed National Defense Authorization Act offers just that opportunity, but only if it is reinforced with even stronger bipartisan appropriation.
It is no secret to our adversaries or our allies in NATO and East Asia that America’s global interests, strategies, and defense capabilities are seriously out of balance. They see our brave rhetoric against China while our Navy shrinks and ships sail without full crews. They see our shrinking military back to back from Europe to exercises and training with aging equipment, struggling to understand and implement the lessons of Ukraine. They see exhausted soldiers and families. They hear reports of Air Force aircraft outdistancing their crews or being retired early because they can’t afford to maintain them. They feel the heat of Russian nuclear modernization without an American response.
Chinese President Xi Jinping put it clearly when he said goodbye to Putin in Moscow last year: “Changes the likes of which we have not seen in 100 years, and we are the ones driving these changes.” By that, he meant that he saw American weakness, an erosion of American influence and a new set of institutions capable of crushing the hopes of billions of people for democracy and freedom that American leadership has fostered.
For these men, democracy is a disease, a virus that must be eradicated. And after two decades of inconclusive American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and a decade of partisan-driven cuts to the U.S. defense budget, they might well believe that the United States is no longer “the arsenal of democracy.”
The threats against the US are greater and more powerful than in the Cold War
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin welcomes NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, wearing glasses, at the Pentagon outside Washington, DC, on July 8, 2024.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 is a good start to addressing our weakness by going $25 billion above the Biden administration’s budget request. But more is needed in every program, not just in a one-time boost, but over at least five years, with commitments perhaps doubling as a share of gross domestic product.
Sounds like too much? During the Cold War, America only had the Soviet Union to deter, while today we face larger and more powerful opponents on a much broader front.
Now that Russia is threatening to place nuclear weapons in space, do we have the means to deter them or, if necessary, defend against them? Can we protect the American people from serious Chinese, Russian, and Iranian threats to destroy the American electrical grid and leave hundreds of millions without power?
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Russia has increased its military strength against Ukraine from 200,000 to 500,000 in two years. If Ukraine falls, will a few American advance brigades with perhaps 200 tanks be enough to prevent a wider war in Europe?
Will China be seriously intimidated by two U.S. aircraft carriers, a handful of long-range bombers, and only dozens of anti-ship missiles, when it can deploy more than 10 times as many ships and aircraft, along with some 1,500 missiles, against U.S. forces in the Western Pacific, while endangering the United States with its own nuclear arsenal?
Can we block Iran’s terrorists and aggression when it declares itself a nuclear weapon state? And in the midst of all this, can we strengthen South Korea against a nuclear-armed Kim Jong Un?
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Today, the answer to these questions is clear: “No!” But this is the world that is fast approaching, with serious consequences for the United States.
It is time to put an end to the “peace dividend” of the 1990s and recognize that innovative sanctions, skillful diplomacy, and unity of allies at summits are no substitute for deploying more hard power.
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The US must protect the peace through force
Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has given us a prescient look at what we need to do in his recently released study, “21st Century Peace Through Strength.” He says we need an immediate addition of about $55 billion this year (the Armed Services Committee has approved $25 billion) and an increase in the defense budget to about 5 percent of GDP over the next five years.
This will allow us to replace the aging defense infrastructure and integrate new technologies and lessons from Ukraine into new platforms in an expanded army.
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In page after page of sharp analysis, Senator Wicker examines each of the services and commands and calls for specific actions to provide the deterrence we need. An expanded shipbuilding program, replacement of aging military systems and platforms, and greater investment in space and cyber are just a few of the dozens of requirements, as he sees them.
We also need to thoroughly review the structure of the all-volunteer armed forces and the army if we are to deter Russian aggression outside Ukraine.
Retired General Wesley K. Clark is a former NATO Supreme Commander for Europe and the founder of Renew America Together.
We are at a critical juncture in American national security. Do we retreat from our commitments in Europe and Asia to let others shape institutions hostile to American interests, do we continue to formulate a strategy that relies on overextended and aging forces that will fall apart in a crisis, or do we determine that now is the time to reinvest in our national security to deter increasingly hostile potential adversaries?
Both houses of Congress and the American people should give immediate and positive consideration to Senator Wicker’s proposal. One of the oldest maxims of diplomacy is this: To keep the peace, prepare for war. This is the time.
Retired General Wesley K. Clark is a former NATO Supreme Commander for Europe and the founder of Renew America Together.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NATO summit begins as Russian, Chinese threats against US grow
