Make no mistake. Despite allocating nearly $1 trillion for the Pentagon next year and the presence of a motivated military and civilian workforce, the department is in free fall. How can this be? After all, the United States 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 20 years, the Pentagon was engaged in waging 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 American.

Worse, these diversions allowed adversaries and enemies to evolve. Today, the combination

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