Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

A Better Choice to Make

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A Better Choice to Make

With the international economic deceleration getting serious and a tiredness of decade of war, US does not seem to be in position to support a very lucrative budget for military purposes and has to bring about important changes in its strategies – especially the military ones. President Obama in this regard seems to be favoring the strategy of shrinking the overall size of the forces and keeping the military spending in check. In fact, a decade of war has made US spend almost half a trillion dollar and it has to bring about important changes to keep the spending in check within the next decade.

Obama's strategy emphasizes more on cyber warfare and unmanned drones and would make sure more US military presence in Asia as it has to focus on the endeavors of China and Iran to obstruct US power projection capabilities in areas like the South China Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.

Last weak Obama told a Pentagon news conference, "The tide of war is receding but the question that this strategy answers is what kind of military will we need long after the wars of the last decade are over." He has also mentioned, "Over the past 10 years, since 9/11, our defense budget grew at an extraordinary pace.

Over the next 10 years, the growth in the defense budget will slow but the fact of the matter is this – it will still grow because we have global responsibilities that demand our leadership." Though this strategy is with controversies, it would definitely, however unintentional, play some role in bringing down the competition of military might provided that the other nations of the world also decide to put a check on their military spending.

The strategy suggested by President Obama has been treated both with welcoming and rebuffing tones. The ones with despise for the strategy have mentioned that such a strategy would definitely decrease the influence of US in the international politics and would disturb the power dynamics which would ultimately end against the US interests. The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Buck Mckeon has said, "This is a lead-from-behind strategy for a left-behind America…

The President has packaged our retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy to mask his divestment of our military and national defense." There are others like him as well who see the diminishing influence of the US in the coming world. However, it is also a fact that US authorities are not planning this strategy only as a choice; rather there is some sort of determinism in it as well. The US has to cut its military spending so as to cover for the spending of last decade war and to calm down the growing opposition for war and aggressive strategy within the American society.

A national security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, Mackenzie Eaglen has mentioned, "Everyone knows that the cart was before the horse on this and that Congress and the President picked a budget and this is a strategy to chase down those numbers," suggesting that the strategy is not what US would need as a leading nation of the world in the times to come; rather it would be more of a compulsion to compensate for the available budget.

This sort of thinking is driven by an assumption that power – especially military might – would be playing an important role in the future political order; therefore, maintaining and even growing military capabilities should the US's future strategy. This thinking has also a sense of fear of losing strength and gaining of power by other nations of the world.

Currently, US seems to have concerns about the China's strategic goals that can capacitate the Chinese to project more influence into the Far East. Moreover, it has also been eyeing the Chinese economic growth and its possible rise into an international power in the times to come. Though this concept may be abominable for many, yet it is not very much unlikely – keeping in mind the present world order in mind and the political ideologies of different nations in the world.

On the other hand there are many who think that it is not a bad choice if a strategy has to follow the budget constraints. The opinion of Gordon Adams, an American University Professor, is worthy to be mentioned, "This is a classic resource-driven strategy document… That's not a criticism, that's just a reality. It's inevitable. Strategy always wears a dollar sign."

Obama's new strategy seems to be more dynamic, keeping in mind the global challenges but it, at the same time, is pointing towards the economic hardships that the country has to face in the coming decades. Moreover, this strategy, if followed and further pursued would make a better world order – though a bit optimistic.

Nevertheless, it is now time for the nations of the world to turn optimistic and try to see better future for the generations to come. The struggle for power and strength can, no doubt, bless a nation with dominancy in the international politics but it has all the capacity to endanger the human specie – it has already done so to a certain extent.

Today human beings measure the strength of the nations by measuring its capability to destruct the whole world for most number of times. In fact the strength does not lie in the capability to destruct but the real capability is in constructing. If a nation of the world has the capacity to construct the whole world on better grounds that country must be considered as the most powerful. Unfortunately, it is not so and the realities are ready to show ugly manifestation of human greed for negative strength.

The US, as one of the leading nations of the world, must strive to bring down the competition of arms and military strength in the world. It is not important how many wars it can win at a time; the important thing is how many hearts it can win at a time. Though this concept may seem very much optimistic; it is about time we became optimistic because the reality seems too much depressing and pessimistic.

Dilawar Sherzai is the permanent writer of the Daily outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at outlookafghanistan@gmail.com

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