The tycoon’s second term will begin on January 20, 2025, and the end of the world timer has been set considering 2027 as the year in which Xi Jinping’s China will move against Taiwan, causing a crisis with incalculable consequences
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has two years to avoid the outbreak of World War III. The grim prediction was made by former Republican congressman Mike Gallagher, who from the pages of the “Wall Street Journal” illustrates the recipe that the new head of the Pentagon appointed by President-elect Donald Trump must follow to avoid planetary catastrophe.
The tycoon’s second term will begin on January 20, 2025, and the end of the world timer has been set considering 2027 as the year in which Xi Jinping’s China will move against Taiwan, causing a crisis with incalculable consequences. The estimate of the time it would take for the People’s Liberation Army to organize an invasion of the “rebel province” was made by outgoing CIA director William Burns, and Gallagher took it up again yesterday to highlight one of the first challenges the Trump administration will face.
“RECETA”
The former GOP representative, a former Marine, knows Beijing very well, having also served as chairman of the Committee that dealt with threats made by the Chinese Communist Party in the House of Representatives. However, the first step that the US defense manager will have to take to avoid a conflict with the Asian giant and “promote peace,” writes Gallagher, “is to declare war from day one, not on China, Russia or Iran, but on the Pentagon and the bureaucracy.”
The former congressman sees dangers on the horizon that Hegseth and the United States will have to counter: the collapse of deterrence in Europe and the Middle East, spending restrictions in Congress, problems in recruiting new soldiers and an unfavorable balance of forces in the Indo-Pacific. But to regain the initiative, it must begin with rebuilding a naval industrial base capable of competing with the Chinese one, overcoming bureaucratic obstacles and technical specifications set by the Department of Defense.
CONFLICT WITH CHINA
Next, the Pentagon must address the critical issue of the shortage of ammunition, especially air defense missiles, some of which could run out within a week of the outbreak of a war with China. “Ships, submarines and missiles are expensive,” admits Gallagher, who identifies several guidelines that should be followed to obtain significant savings: the implementation of fixed-price contracts, the obligation of private sector contractors to purchase products and services designed and developed at their own expense and not at the expense of American taxpayers. and the reduction of the number of civilian employees of the Department of Defense, among others.
To prevent conflict with the Chinese, Secretary Hegseth, whose nomination is expected to be considered by the Senate, will have to put the Pentagon on a “war footing,” concludes the former congressman who underlines how it is necessary to dismiss “any bureaucrat. incompetent or against working at a war pace.” The only possible recipe for Gallagher to repair the damage to the military leadership was recorded during the Joe Biden administration and regain “the trust of the American people and the fear of America’s enemies.”
PENTAGON CLEANSER
The reasoning of the former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Committee and his invitation to Hegseth to launch an all-out war against bureaucracy within the Ministry of Defense actually seems to coincide with the thoughts of Trump and his Republican supporters. In recent hours, the American press has revealed how the tycoon’s transition team is considering the formation of committees to evaluate generals. During the election campaign, Donald promised to get rid of the “smart military man,” hinting at his interest in possible purges in the Pentagon. However, it is not clear how much all this can help Washington recover lost ground in the competition with Beijing and other rivals of the United States.
