The United States faces many national security challenges. In no particular order, these include:
1. The unchecked rise of Islamic terrorism;
2. The failure of the US-sponsored governments in Iraq and Afghanistan;
3. Rise of the Islamic State;
4. Rise of Iran, encouraged and funded by a self-destructive American foreign policy establishment;
5. The fraying of NATO, illustrated by Turkey’s collapse into Islamist dictatorship and the EU’s pursuit of an independent (but oppositional to the US) military strategy;
6. Failure of diplomacy to unite us with the Russians against the common enemy in Islam;
7…leading to, the necessity to marshal resources to counter Russian adventurism;
8. Chinese seizure of the sovereign territory of US allies in the Pacific, including the Philippines (the one bright spot is the potential for US alliance with Vietnam, of all places);
9. Chinese and Russian espionage and the complete failure of American leadership to take it seriously;
10. Damage to US-Israeli relations from an ill-advised clandestine regime change attempt in Israel;
11. The hollowing out of the military by 15 years of COIN war and numerous botched and cancelled procurement programs.
12. Degrading of military readiness by pursuit of social engineering at the expense of combat effectiveness.
Lifted from;
http://weaponsman.com/?p=35150
