For 12 days in June, the United States teetered on the edge of yet another war in the Middle East. We seem to have avoided the worst for now, but there is a chance that fighting between Israel and Iran could resume—especially if diplomatic efforts to restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions fail. And pressure on President Trump from prominent interventionist Republican policymakers remains to support a regime change operation against Iran, which also risks reigniting the conflict.
At the same time, the threat of war with China looms large. China continues to rapidly expand its Navy and build capabilities that would enable it to seize Taiwan if it so chooses. We are now less than 18 months away from 2027, the year that Admiral Phil Davidson, a former commander of the military Indo-Pacific Command, once said China could be able to seize Taiwan through force. A war with nuclear-armed China would be several orders of magnitude more dangerous than a war with Iran.
Regardless, the United States still must be prepared to wage a major conflict. And while there is no doubt that the U.S. military remains the most powerful and capable fighting force in the world, it is suffering from systemic challenges in a critical component of warfighting success: personnel readiness.
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