The big picture: James Clapper on America's top 2 threats

[DonViejo]

Dave Lawler 2 hours ago

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, whose new book “Facts and Fears” is out now, told me in our interview last week that Russia presents the most urgent national security threat to the U.S., and China the biggest long-term threat.

The big picture: Clapper says Russia is “bent on undermining our system any way they can” and will be as long as Vladimir Putin remains in power, while China's "economic power" and "scientific and technical prowess" present big long-term challenges.

Russia

“They want to exploit our schisms and the polarization in this country and unfortunately we are a ripe target. It starts with Putin, who has intense animus for this country and the values it stands for."

"They're waging this sort of soft war against us, and the other dimension that nobody pays too much attention to is their strategic nuclear weapons arsenal modernization."

"They're doing all this with one adversary in mind — the United States. So Russia, in my mind, poses a huge threat to this country and we should pay a lot more attention to it, starting with the president."

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https://www.axios.com/james-clapper-on-russia-vladimir-putin-mike-flynn-china-d364dfc3-4b5f-4d6a-a838-bdd06c6ab123.html?utm_source=sidebar

[lark]

1. Oh, drumpf pats lots of attention to Putin.

He does everything Putin tells him to because he's his manly master.

[FakeNoose]

2. I'm reading Clapper's book now

It's quite interesting, and I'd say worthwhile. It's a memoir in the first few chapters, in which Clapper tells about his upbringing and early career in the military. In later chapters he deals with the current situation, the Russian interference and Trump etc. but I have't gotten that far yet.

I'm sure Clapper has been careful to not reveal any classified info but he does give background details that make it more interesting and personal. I found this to be true also in James Comey's book which I read a couple months ago. However Clapper does a good job of keeping historical perspective vis-a-vis the Cold War, the Islamic terrorist threats, and intelligence community failures such as 9/11, etc. He's careful to avoid political pitfalls in this book, owing to the fact that he has served in several Democratic and Republican administrations.

[Voltaire2]

3. Why do we think it is wrong for other nations

to improve their military capabilities?

We spend an obscene amount every year - 3 times what China spends and almost 10x Russia.

The world would be better off with military parity between great powers. The inclination to unilateral military actions would be tempered by the fact that other nations might just object and have the capacity to enforce their objections.

Also, while Russia is clearly up to no good, China appears to be doing what nations are supposed to do- pursue national wealth and prosperity, achieve excellence and expertise in emerging technologies, grow commerce and trade in goods and services around the world.

The threat from China is that they appear to currently be much better at this whole market economy, capitalism and free trade thing than we are. It is a threat to our pride.