The news headlines that came out yesterday were so asinine that I was wondering if someone was just making this news up to rile up some Americans. It was so surreal…
After I wrote yesterday’s blog entry I heard that Hillary Clinton had agreed to let the Russians inspect our nuclear sites and to let the Russians count every one of our missiles and warheads. Link Clinton explained that the motivation behind this is to be as transparent as possible to the Russians: "We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered"
At first glance, this is a bigger coup for the Russians than having Obama announce unilaterally that he intended to cancel the plans for the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. Without sacrificing anything of importance, Russia will probably get to see things that they could have only dreamed of during the Cold War. If we are going to let the Russians tour our nuclear sites we should have at least gotten the same type of access from them and have gotten them to agree to put sanctions on Iran. Instead, I don’t think we got anything for this.
Fortunately, our military had the foresight in the Cold War to develop the nuclear triad. The nuclear triad is something our military devised to give us multiple capabilities to attack our enemies in case we are hit by a devastating first strike. Our military has the ability to deliver nuclear weapons from land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic bombers, and specially-equipped submarine. The Russians will apparently be allowed to see the land-based component of the nuclear triad-the intercontinental ballistic missiles. In some event the Russians are able to take that out we would still have the ability to strike them with our strategic bombers and with our specially-equipped submarines. Of course, I am assuming that the Obama Administration does not dismantle the other two legs of the triad or let the Russians have key information regarding these parts of the triad. The way we are losing in negotiations nothing is out of the question.
Yesterday afternoon I was listening to a radio host who was just as infuriated as I was that we are going to let the Russians tour our nuclear sites. The host sarcastically suggested that while we are at it we should let the Chinese buy the Pentagon or let the Chinese run the Pentagon. A few hours later a headline came out saying that China’s second highest-ranking military official would be given a grand tour of our key military facilities later this month. Link
The tour will include visits to many of our most important military sites, including: the Pentagon, US Pacific Command, and US Strategic Command. Press Secretary Geoff Morrell confirmed that we are going to reveal to this Chinese military official a lot of important information about our military: "We will show him a great deal of how our military operates in this country".
What is the purpose behind this? Morrell explains that the U.S. wants to foster "a better and deeper strategic dialogue with that country, especially better trust and transparency between our two militaries". Translation: The U.S. wants to be as transparent to the Chinese as possible.
The consequences of this grand tour could potentially be more damaging to our national security in the long-run than letting the Russians tour our nuclear sites. With a deeper understanding of how our military works, China will have a better idea of our strengths and weaknesses. By learning our strengths, China will know which areas they will need to address to neutralize our strengths. By learning our weaknesses, China will know what areas they can exploit.
A common theme links the headlines about Russia and China. Obama Administration representatives said in each case that the U.S. is trying to be transparent as possible. The hope is that by being as transparent as possible Russia and China will not be so paranoid about us because they know what we are capable of doing. The problem with the way we are going about this is that we are instigating these actions without assurances that Russia and China will return the favor with us. Once we surrender our information the Russians and Chinese have no incentive to share their information with us. We are being put at an informational disadvantage relative to our traditional enemies with the things we are doing. This informational disadvantage is likely going to lead to us to one day facing opponents that are far better prepared for us militarily than what they would have been without gaining this information.
