I'm all for letting the generals do the generalizing, but I'm a bit concerned at making Russia/China a higher priority than terrorism. I'm not vehemently against it, but would like to understand the rationale better.
Terrorists can kill small batches of people and cause fear.
Russia/China can:
Kill large swathes of the population
Attack necessary infrastructure - physical, electrical, cyber
Wage significant economic warfare
Disrupt allies
So do you think it was inappropriate to make counter-terrorism a priority?
I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment. Rather, I don't think any of those points have changed in the last 10 years. Well, the cyber side has picked up in the last 5, I'll grant you that.
But a nation-state has to deal with the political toll of violence. Terrorists not so much.
Cyber attacks, the invasion of Ukraine, saber rattling by N. Korea, EU/US Sanctions affecting Russian economy, orders to shut down consulates/remove personnel...I'd say things have changed in the past 10 years.
We need a law...no one in the congress goes home until we have a budget.
Cyber - already conceded.
Ukraine - Russian takeover of Georgian territory was almost exactly 10 years ago.
North Korea - seriously?
Sanctions against Russia - literally nothing new there. And I haven't seen anything indicating a structural effect on their economy. I am open to correction on that, though.
But, more broadly, those things you mentioned haven't changed in the last 10 years. They've manifested in different ways, but there's nothing that's made Russia or China more of a direct threat to us. MAYBE the South China Sea issue.
Is that really a bigger threat than terrorism?
Sanctions against Russia - literally nothing new there. And I haven't seen anything indicating a structural effect on their economy. I am open to correction on that, though.
But, more broadly, those things you mentioned haven't changed in the last 10 years.
As the gentleman posted in the parallel thread about this topic, our military soldiers won't get paid either...WIN WINIf they are shut down, they are not spending 7 million dollars a minute. Win,Win
They got PAID on the 12th,and they get PAID on Feb.1st.As the gentleman posted in the parallel thread about this topic, our military soldiers won't get paid either...WIN WIN
If they are shut down, they are not spending 7 million dollars a minute. Win,Win