Why is Common Sense so Hard to Find in the US Military?

I have been stunned recently while reading about how the US military is running its procurement programs. Here is an example:

The SCTV vs the JLTV
The SCTV was a great idea put forward by the marine corps. The idea was to take the current fleet of HMMWVs and upgrade them to have better engines, better armor, better IED protection and to essentially fulfill all requirements that the DOD put forward for the JLTV. However recently the program was cancelled. The excuse that was given was budget constraints. The odd thing is the SCTV program was cheaper than the JLTV. So if budget constraints are so bad why would they cancel the cheaper project? Like I said a startling lack of common sense.

JLTV






SCTV
 

On The 100 Year Marathon

If I have any regular readers my apologies for not posting anything new for a while. I have been very busy lately.

Ok onto the topic at hand: the 100 year marathon. For those of you who do not know what this is let me put it plainly. It is a plan put into motion in 1949 by the People's Republic of China. The goal of this plan is to pass up the United States as the Hegemon of the world.

This post is not going to go into great detail about it. If you want to know more I suggest you read the book The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Super Power by Michael Pillsbury. The purpose of this this post is to be a wake-up call to my readers in the west and to be a message to my readers in the east that if the US doesn't change its doctrines quickly the Chinese will succeed in their goal.

To understand how the Chinese are executing their plan you need to think of some basic lessons from the warring states period of Chinese history:

1. Deceive your enemy. In order to succeed in beating your enemy they must think you are the enemy until it is too late. The proverb going "Do not ask the weight of the emperor's cauldrons". Do not let the enemy know of your ambitions.

2. Similarly make the enemy think you are week. 

3. Manipulate the balance of power. While keeping secrecy use effect the change of the balances in power to the point where they are in your favor. The principle is best summed up in the mandarin phrase Shi.

4. Steal your opponents technology because it is the best way to quickly close a gap in technology. The Chinese have been doing this since the Reagan administration with the US. The worst part is we have actually been giving some of the technology to them.

5. Patience. The Chinese have been pursuing the goal of become the World's only superpower for almost 66 years and they are getting closer and closer to being able to overtake the US as the Hegemon of the world.

To my western readers wake up! See what is happening! It is not too late! We can still beat the Chinese. If we can just acknowledge what is going on that would be a fantastic first step.