America Could Be Headed for WAR With No Equipment or Supplies

I've been writing about the U.S. supply chain for months and pointing out how the American food supply chain has been disrupted by COVID restrictions, natural disasters, and (intentional?) mismanagement.

Eventually, a significant food shortage here inside the country will occur. For those who choose to ignore these warnings and fail to prepare accordingly, times will get very hard very quickly.

But it's not just the food supply chain we need to be worried about.

In July 2017, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order concerning the security of U.S. supply chains caused by decades of deindustrialization, Free Trade, and lopsided trade policy. Interestingly enough, President Joe Biden signed a similar Executive Order in February.

It is not just gadgets and consumer products that are the concern here. The U.S. Military's ability to procure needed supplies to arm and support itself in military conflicts is of great concern. 

As Loren Thompson of Forbes points out: "The moment is fast approaching when America's military will be unable to equip itself for modern warfare without relying on Chinese suppliers. So if the war is with China, there's a good chance the U.S. military would be defeated."

America's deep slide down the industrial rabbit hole

Some Americans, particularly younger ones not acquainted with the terms "Free Trade," might be aware just how advanced the American industrial collapse has become.

Thompson writes:

Just take a stroll through Best Buy BBY +0.7% and see if you can find anything made in America. Virtually every electronic device of interest, from smartphones to flat-panel televisions to laptop computers, is now made in Asia—especially China. And less than 2% of the shipping that delivers such devices to U.S. shores is conducted on vessels made in America. China increasingly builds (and owns) the ships.

. . . . .

It is not hard to dream up excuses for why America might be lagging in smartphones or container ships. After all, don't we design the smartphones here, and don't we still build the most advanced warships?

But the more you investigate the extent of America's industrial decline, the easier it is to see is why that slide might be leading to a security crisis.

For instance, the Pentagon's current list of top-priority technologies for equipping the future force, in descending order of priority, includes (1) microelectronics, (2) 5G communications, (3) hypersonics, (4) biotechnology, (5) artificial intelligence, (6) autonomy and (7) cyber.

The U.S. isn't a clear-cut global leader in any of these technologies any more. It may have an edge in two or three of them, but its lead is fast evaporating.