US must be ready for simultaneous wars with China, Russia, report says
By Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States must prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China by expanding its conventional forces, strengthening alliances and enhancing its nuclear weapons modernization program, a congressionally appointed bipartisan panel said on Thursday.
The report from the Strategic Posture Commission comes amid tensions with China over Taiwan and other issues and worsening frictions with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
A senior official involved in the report declined to say if the panel's intelligence briefings showed any Chinese and Russian nuclear weapons cooperation.
«We worry… there may be ultimate coordination between them in some way, which gets us to this two-war construct,» the official said on condition of anonymity.
The findings would upend current U.S. national security strategy calling for winning one conflict while deterring another and require huge defense spending increases with uncertain congressional support.
«We do recognize budget realities, but we also believe the nation must make these investments,» the Democratic chair, Madelyn Creedon, a former deputy head of the agency that oversees U.S. nuclear weapons, and the vice chair, Jon Kyl, a retired Republican senator, said in the report's preface.
The report contrasts with U.S. President Joe Biden's position that the current U.S. nuclear arsenal is sufficient to deter the combined forces of Russia and China.
«The United States and its allies must be ready to deter and defeat both adversaries simultaneously,» the Strategic Posture Commission said. «The U.S.-led international order and the values it upholds are at risk from the Chinese and Russian authoritarian regimes.»
Congress established
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