Published on, Sept. 18 -- September 18, 2025 6:12 AM

Make no mistake. The department is in free fall despite allocating nearly one trillion dollars for the Pentagon next year and the presence of a motivated military and civilian workforce. How can this be? After all, the US is supposed to have the most powerful military in the world armed with the best weapons.

Suspend disbelief and consider the reasons for this assessment. First, for twenty years, the Pentagon was engaged in endless wars that could not be won by military force alone. Nation-building in Afghanistan and imposing a democracy in Iraq after invading to destroy non-existent weapons of mass destruction squandered trillions of dollars and countless amounts of blood, not only A...