The world was never as unipolar in the post-Cold War era as people
think.
Being the "hyperpower" as the French called us did not mean America could dominate the
entire world. It just meant we could uniquely apply decisive power to
large portions of the planet.
And it is even less unipolar now when Russia (bouncing from its post-Soviet collapse) and China (from
its 19th century collapse in influence) are rising in power (and in a
more positive way, India, Japan, and South Korea). So that's something we
have to get accustomed to again.
But this comment by a Defense
Department official is nonsense: “When we fight Russia and China, ‘blue’
[the United States] gets its ass handed to it.”
I'm sure that this is
an accurate statement of the simulations run. But I am also sure that it only counts the initial battles
between forward deployed American forces and the fully deployed Russian
and Chinese forces already in the region who strike when they are ready.
Extend the timeline to allow
America to mobilize and reinforce and I bet the simulation results get better.
Our
forward forces are not and can never be sufficient to defeat great
powers in their own regions choosing their own time and place for the war.
The job of our military is to deter war and support allies in peacetime; and if deterrence fails,
survive the enemy initial offensive and prepare to counter-attack, whether this is in the Baltic NATO states or in regard to Taiwan.
One nit to pick in particular.
While Chinese dominance of the South China Sea is no more a shock than
American dominance of the Caribbean Sea given the geography, the key difference is that America does not claim the Caribbean Sea as national territory the way China claims the South China Sea.