Victor Davis Hanson
Trump’s greatest challenge is to restore deterrence—blown up by Biden after Kabul, the Chinese balloon fiasco, the Gazan and Ukrainian wars, and his periodic Corn-Pop-like empty threats (i.e., “Don’t!”) when enemies successfully game Biden.
Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iran are existential enemies of the U.S. and the West in general. They kill and take hostage Americans, attack international shipping, seek to destroy Israel, and send their operatives over to the U.S. and Europe to spread their anti-Semitic hatred and foment terror.
To restore lost deterrence, Trump should arm Israel to the teeth and support all its efforts to settle with Hamas and Hezbollah—in line with the 65 percent, pro-Israel American majority. He should inform the Houthis that their attacks on international shipping will earn a rolling but lethal response until they cease, first targeting military installations in Yemen, then power plants, then ports and key infrastructure—all calibrated on the degree of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis would all be deprived of revenue (they produce nothing of value, have no tourist trade, and their only source of income is from Iran and the bribe money they receive from nations scared of their terrorism and the corrupt UN). So, Trump would logically restore sanctions on Iranian oil and warn it that if it continues to harass U.S. shipping in the Gulf or feeds Hezbollah, it will receive the Houthis’ treatment. If Iran continues its ongoing fueling of terrorists, the U.S. and its allies should blockade Iran until it ceases funding terrorists. Again, all Iranian nationals inside the United States should return home.
I have discussed elsewhere an agenda for stopping the Ukrainian meatgrinder (approaching one million dead, wounded, and missing Ukrainians and Russians). Zelensky should face the reality that he and others, prior to February 2022, had apparently accepted certain givens: Ukraine did not meet NATO requirements on consensual government and anti-corruption (ask Hunter Biden).
Moreover, it was not able—nor was it advised so by the Obama, Trump, or Biden administration, nor by NATO nor by the EU—to attempt to reclaim by force the lost and historically disputed Donbas and Crimea.
Trump would likely warn Putin that Ukraine will be armed to the teeth, but not become a NATO member (analogous to Austria or Switzerland) and that Putin should worry more about his newfound but treacherous Chinese ally, as the U.S. pursues Kissingerian triangulation to play China off against Russia.
No deterrence is possible unless the Pentagon is radically reformed. Its methods of weapons procurement are upside down. As the military world after Ukraine and Gaza shifts to multitudes of cheap drones, we insist on building a few $2 billion B-2s, $300 million F-22s, and $110 million F-35s, and $15-16 billion fleet carriers, as well as $1 billion Patriot anti-aircraft systems equipped with $4 million missiles.
Instead, it would be far wiser to begin building 3-4 million $10,000 anti-aircraft, anti-tank, anti-ship, anti-submarine, anti-infantry, and anti-missile drones, of all sizes. We won World War II not just by building big carriers and a 1,000 Tiger-like tanks but by building over 150 fleet, light, and escort carriers, 300,000 planes, and 50,000 armored vehicles.
To ensure that we change our priorities, we need to break up the defense monopoly of Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed, and Boeing, and spread contracts to smaller companies that can build more and cheaper weapons. The key would be to bar all retiring one–four-star admirals and generals (their pensions are quite generous) from working for a defense contractor either as a lobbyist or board member for 10 years upon leaving the military.
Ending the Pentagon culture of woke is essential. All DEI indoctrination must cease, and promotions and retentions must return to meritocratic criteria. There should be no vaccine mandate for any mRNA or experimental vaccine. The Pentagon should cease its demonization of supposedly “racist,” “privileged,” and “raging” white males who are now abandoning the military in droves, after dying at twice their numbers in the general population in godawful places like Fallujah and Kandahar.
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