In a Tuesday interview with Fox News, Republican US Senator Tom Cotton expressed doubts about the US Navy’s ability to defeat China in combat, citing how the US military has evolved away from warfighting, in his opinion.
“Obviously, the Navy has a big and complex task, but the single most important thing we have our surface Navy for is to be ready to fight and defeat the Chinese Navy”, Cotton said.
“And right now, I have real problems — real doubts – the Navy has instilled the kind of warfighting mentality that would allow us to accomplish that goal.”
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He also made reference to a recent military report card provided to members of Congress that, according to Cotton’s previous remark, “found that a staggering 94% of sailors interviewed believe that the surface Navy suffers from a crisis of leadership and culture.”
It’s coming from sailors, it’s coming from the sailors and their chiefs and their junior officers, and in some cases, commanding officers who have lost confidence that the Navy’s surface warfare component is ready to fight and win tonight
Cotton told Fox News.
The senator stated that the US “allowed China to steal a march on us that relates especially shipbuilding”, referring to Beijing’s “massive shipbuilding campaign” and urging that Washington should follow suit.
Additionally, he stated that improvements are necessary in the way sailors and commanders are trained, saying that, according to the military study, troops are “in some cases” given DVDs to view in their leisure time to learn.
We would never do that to a Navy aviator, we would never do it to a Navy nuclear engineer
Cotton argued.
We shouldn’t be doing it to our surface warfare officers either. They deserve a lot better, and the sailors they lead deserve a lot better as well.
Cotton and many of his House colleagues, notably Republican Representatives Jim Banks, Dan Crenshaw, and Mike Gallagher, requested the delivery of “A Report on the Fighting Culture of the United States Navy’s Surface Fleet.”
This is not the first time Republican legislators have cast doubt on the readiness of the American military, which is by far the greatest in the world. Numerous conservatives criticise the US military for being “woke” and “emasculated,” most notably Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who posted a video comparing the US military to the Russian army.
Certain commentators have criticised the American military for rolling out so-called ‘woke’ advertisement films and giving Zodiac horoscopes to soldiers, claiming that the emphasis should be on professionalism rather than sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, or even astrological aspects.
The view, however, does not appear to be shared by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who stated in late May that he would not “lose a single minute of sleep” over what Russia or China say about the US military.
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