I’ve read that the United States never celebrated our victory at the end of the Cold War, when communism collapsed with an almost miraculous suddenness. George Bush the Elder certainly did not want to crow over the ruins of the Berlin Wall, but the United States threw a hell of a party. It lasted 20 years.
     The party is over.
     With the mortal threat to mankind’s very existence removed with the end of the nuclear rivalry, our politics instantly began to trivialize. It’s hardly a coincidence that the first post-Cold War President was a man of highly questionable character who claimed that, “I feel your pain.”
     What pain? For the poor (and the Bible tells us the poor will always be with us) there is always pain but for most Americans, things were pretty good in the 1990s and 2000s. We were, and are, riven by domestic issues, which boil down to how our tax revenues are raised and spent, and the meaning of human life. Not trivial issues, but they don’t carry the weight for the average citizen that national survival and nuclear war do.
     No matter, we learned to talk our political concerns to death and back again, endlessly repeating our arguments to people who had already made up their minds, and to whose arguments we turned a deaf ear. Our politics was charmed by the sound of our own voices, our own “talking points.” We judged our leaders not so much by the message but by their ability to “stay on message.” And the message was sold, like soap, through endless mind-numbing repetition of slogans and bromides.
     At length politics gave way in the public’s awareness to the celebrity culture. More than ever we consume volumes of news and images about actors, singers, fashion models and socialites who are famous for being famous.
     We have obviously had a lot of time on our hands. But all of that is drawing to a close.
     Samuel Johnson once said "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." I hope by concentrating wonderfully we might avoid economic or military blackmail by the Russians.

     Russia is applying its great wealth... acquired by selling Western Europe its natural gas, to the rebuilding and reorganization of its armed forces. Little noted here, a few years ago the Russians publicly committed to rebuilding their Ground Forces back to the 600,000-troop level and raising the complete armed strength of Russia to that of the former Soviet Union.
     That means an army as large or larger than our own and comparably equipped with the latest in weaponry. Accordingly Russia is investing heavily in weapons technology (GlobalSecurity.org). One of the first fruits will be the debut sometime this year, of an advanced “fifth generation” fighter.
     We still have the advantage over the Russians in the sophistication of all of our arms, especially main battle tanks and fighter aircraft. Whether or not the advantage remains comfortable in the years to come is going to be a policy question on the mind of the next President, whomever he may be.

     It is obvious as we fight two theatres of a war on terror...  that we are light on troop strength. The Army and the Marine Corps need to be expanded in size significantly so that levels of commitment like those of Iraq do not mean that other fighting fronts are shortchanged in troop strength. We need two Armies, in essence: One is a light army of light infantry, airborne and air-mobile troops that moves fast in helicopters and armored personnel carriers like the M1126 Stryker and the Bradley fighting vehicle, and can handle wars like Iraq and Afghanistan.
     The other is a heavy army based around heavy infantry, conventional and rocket artillery, tank-killer helicopters and armored divisions trained to fight set-piece battles with heavy enemy forces. That will be our insurance policy for the Russians…and the Chinese if it comes to that.
     We have other work to do. We should tear a page from fiction and develop another subsonic aerial weapons platform like the B-52, but loaded with standoff weapons, the latest in electronic counter measures and electronic warfare equipment. A big all-purpose heavy bomber that can orbit outside of enemy airspace while dealing death blows from a distance.
      We need to inspect, update and/or replace and expand our arsenal of nuclear warheads. We cannot let the Russia or China think that a nuclear war is winnable. We will need to expand the fleet of submarines capable of launching nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles or cruise missiles. As the Russians expand their fleet, we will need more Virginia-class attack submarines to contain the threat. New surface ship acquisitions for the Navy need to be stealthy and fast. Unfortunately, last month, the Navy canceled development of the DD-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer, that perfectly fits this requirement. Only seven examples will be built. The number should be expanded back to at least 24.

     And there is much else to do. It will be expensive and it will call for sacrifices from projected future social programs. Europe is in no condition to defend itself, however. Once again history has chosen our country to be the guarantor of freedom and independence for other nations. One only hopes that the man we elect President this year is up to the enormous task of leadership ahead…or that he at least realizes there is such a task.