We Can’t Take Chances with a ‘Reimagined’ Harris Global Policy

(Editor’s Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party, or candidate, on the part of Newsmax.)

Vice President Kamala Harris Can’t Even Handle Domestic Policy

Although only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults surveyed in an AP-NORC poll named foreign policy as one of the top five issues they care most about has doubled since a year ago, this relatively low priority reflects a serious disconnect with staggering military risks as well as economic consequences of inept leadership.

It follows then that if presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t have a domestic policy she can articulate, what are the chances if elected she will do better globally?

America, and by extension the world, is at the edge of a World War III precipice.

Is unthinkable nuclear conflict not far off?

A bipartisan commission on the National Defense Strategy report prepared by a panel of eight experts named by senior Democrats and Republicans on U.S. House and U.S. Senate Armed Services committees warns that the U.S. faces the “most serious and most challenging” threats since 1945, including the real risk of “near-term major war.”

Drawing upon both public and classified information, the findings highlight a devastating picture of political failure, strategic inadequacy and growing American weakness in a time of rapidly increasing danger.

The authors unanimously conclude: “The nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago. It is not prepared today.”

Even worse, the panel notes, “China and Russia’s ‘no-limits’ partnership, formed in February 2022 just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has only deepened and broadened to include a military and economic partnership with Iran and North Korea. . . . This new alignment of nations opposed to U.S. interests creates a real risk, if not likelihood, that conflict anywhere could become a multi-theater or global war.”

Should such a conflict break out, “the Commission finds that the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.”

There should be nothing partisan about reasons for such concern which are becoming recognized in mainstream and conservative media alike.

Columnist David Ignatius of The Washington Post reports that Ukraine is “bleeding out” as its weary soldiers struggle against Russia.

The New York Times reports that China is expanding the geographical reach and escalating violence in its campaign to drive Philippine forces from islands and shoals that Beijing illegitimately claims, and Bloomberg reports that Washington officials are fearful that Russia will help Iran cross the finish line in its race for nuclear weapons.

Nevertheless, Walter Russell Mead notes in The Wall Street Journal, that there “has been no uproar in the press, no speechifying by presidential candidates, no storm on social media, no sign that the American political class takes the slightest interest in the increasing fragility of the peace on which everything we cherish depends.”

Whereas some level of concern about global security is bipartisan, stark differences are evident when it comes to defense investments.

After former President Trump restored much of the military capacity depleted under the Obama administration, the Biden-Harris 1% Pentagon budget increase proposed for 2025 represents the fourth real cut in a row after about 7% inflation is factored in.

Compare this, for example, with China’s recently announced 7.2% defense spending increase as they are fielding its advanced equipment arsenal an estimated five to six times faster than the U.S.

And while China already boasts the world’s largest naval fleet, the U.S. Navy will purchase only six ships and retire 10 early, shrinking its fleet to 287 ships in 2025 from 296 today, along with cutting plans for a Virginia-class attack submarine from one to two.

Meanwhile, Israel is fighting for survival against Iranian proxies funded by billions of dollars of Biden-Harris Trump Tehran oil export sanction relief, as Tehran-backed Yemen Houthi terrorists have taken a major global Red Sea shipping lane hostage.

The Biden-Harris response to our staunchest Mideast ally’s fight for survival has been confusing at best, having paused arms shipments to Israel approved by Congress subject to their agreement to an “immediate” ceasefire at the Gaza strip and to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause while harsher on the Israeli government.

This messaging was underscored when Kamala disrespectfully snubbed attending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s July 25 joint session of Congress address, then following a private meeting, publicly criticized his failure to provide adequate humanitarian aid to Israel’s Gaza victims.

As for future U.S. support for Israel, will Kamala clarify her position on this ahead of Palestinian swing state pushback before November elections?

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert (Bob) Gates warned almost 12 years ago of the dangerous consequences of defense cutbacks.

Pointing out that a strong military translates into freedom for America and its allies, Gates said, “In the final analysis, the greatest beneficiaries of American leadership in the world are the American people in terms of security, prosperity and our freedom.”

And as U.S. Army enlistments dropped 35% from 58,000 personnel to 37,000 over a decade from 2013 to 2023, will a commander in chief Kamala wish to deter American adversaries by “reimagining the military” as she has proposed to do with domestic policing and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement?

Will China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea likely agree to do the same?

Instead of taking that chance let’s seriously reimagine any notion of trusting Kamala with that unimaginable choice.

Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is “Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design” (2022). Read Larry Bell’s Reports — More Here.