America strikes out
Using a baseball metaphor, in the field of national security, when the United States comes to the plate to bat, it often starts with two and a half strikes against it. Strike one is the chronic tendency to misinterpret, distort and even invent threats often for politically expedient reasons. Strike two is the failure to address the question of “what next?” once crucial foreign or national security policy decisions have been taken. Strike two and a half are lapses in oversight of sensitive national security programs that too often occur. Regarding threat assessment, during the Cold War, the U.S. believed that the Soviet Union was “ten feet tall.” It turned [...]
