"Russia's Pearl Harbor"—or Our Pearl Harbor, Part Deux?

David Knight

Russia's Pearl Harbor is mainstream media's characterization of the drone attack that destroyed an estimated $7 BILLION worth of aircraft with drones. Destroying 34% of Russia's cruise missile carrying aircraft and a loss of about 5.5% of their annual budget of $126 billion (their budget is only 1/8 of USA spending).

But in what way is it Pearl Harbor? A surprise attack? No, FDR knew it was coming and stood aside in order to build a public consensus for war. This Ukrainian attack was however like Pearl Harbor in that it showed the premiere weapons of the previous war (battleships) were now made obsolete by newer aircraft carriers.

In Daniel Suarez's 2012 fictional book, "Kill Decision", a container ship carrying hidden drones unleashes a surprise attack against a US Navy ship. This new Pearl Harbor was hidden drones from a semi trailer unleashing a devastating attack against Russian planes on the ground. Reality has caught up to fiction.

A central theme of the book is that the entire military complex would need to retool, to the delight of the military industrial complex. Unfortunately the Pentagon and MIC are still partying (spending) like it's 1999. A trillion dollar budget to squander on massively complex and expensive weapon systems like the recently green-lighted next generation fighter jet. After Russia showed how vulnerable state-of-the-art tanks ($10 Million each) were to cheap drones, the Pentagon continues to build complex, ludicrously expensive centralized weapon systems (a mirror of the Pentagon itself). Drones make the asymmetric warfare of Iraq and other recent wars look trivial.

As the west laughs and mocks Putin, do they not see our exposure to asymmetric drone warfare is far, far greater as we pour money we borrow into building antique weapons? But hey, they'll look really impressive in Trump's parade — and dictatorial pride is all that really matters, right? Real Defense is to pursue peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations while we avoid entangling military alliances. George Washington's wisdom stands diametrically opposed to Donald Trump's folly. Trump's foreign folly is NOT America First. No, it is military contractors and other nations' interests that come first. America is dead last