According to a speech from British Minister of Defense Grant Shapps, the West needs to get their gear cleaned and start getting more people to sign up and serve in short order. Appearing at the Lancaster House on January 15th, Shapps described a grim future for the UK, the US, and our Western allies.
“Now is the time for all allies and democratic nations across the world to… make sure their defense spending is growing too. Because as discussed, the era of the peace dividend is over. In five years’, time we could be looking at multiple theatres including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea…we find ourselves at the dawn of this new era. [The] Berlin Wall a distant memory but we have come full circle, moving from a post-war to a pre-war world. An age of idealism has been replaced by a period of hard-headed realism.”
In the short term, Shapps claims that the West needs to continue its support of Ukraine. In his vision, if the Russians were able to capitalize and take over Ukraine, China and others could see this as a weakness by sticking it out when things got rough. Remarks like these have come from Estonia, who recently claimed that Russia will be going after NATO as a whole in short order.
While most are concerned with Russia, Shapps pointing out the other three “problem children” is a damn smart decision.
China is one of the most predictably unpredictable countries on the list. Given their purchase of American debt and land and their economic reliance on our importations from their country, it’s hard to imagine they would want to risk that. However, if they think they can win, then they don’t see the risk in challenging the US that they once did. Given their reluctance to step up the efforts in supporting their claims to Taiwan, it makes any threats they may issue less intimidating.
Iran is the real wild child of the group and quite likely the most liable to kick things off. Already supporting Hamas as they fight beside Palestine and try to take over Israel. Striking first, they kicked a hornet nest, with many of their fighters using arms from North Korea, and intel and funding from Iran. Their jump to support the Houthi rebels, who have been targeting ships in the Red Sea, has caused some significant tension in the region. The US, UK, and other allied countries have already been defending ships in the Red Sea and Iranian targets.
North Korea is the window licker of the group. Small and underfunded, their “come home carrying your shield or on it” mentality is great for keeping their people oppressed. Those of us who have been looking at Kim Jong-un objectively see nothing more than a scared leader trying to make daddy and Grandpa proud of his saber-rattling. Despite supplying arms to the Houthi rebels as well as Hamas, NK has been largely restricted from doing anything financially since COVID first struck. With a poorly maintained military, they are more likely to blow themselves up than anyone else.
Separately, these nations aren’t much to look at. Minus China, they aren’t very well armed or trained. While each has a significant number of troops and rebels willing to fight, they wouldn’t hold a candle to the US and the numbers we have here. With the Second Amendment, there isn’t much of our nation that could be easily conquered. Given the destruction we have been able to rain on other nations despite not having been there in ages, we would be a brutal nation at home.
Banded together, these four could give the US one hell of a battle. Given our commitments to other non-militarized nations across the globe and NATO, we could quickly find out that the already dwindling force is being spread very thin. The Reserves or National Guard would be of some help, but it would honestly be the Patriots of this nation who never served for one reason or another and our veterans who would ensure our victory. A lesson engraved in history, these four would be wise to pay attention.
As Japanese Admiral Yamamoto once said, “We can never invade America. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
