Maintaining Perspective About Adversaries | Maintaining Perspective About Adversaries –...

interesting read and Perspective makes some the interesting points...

..."...The U.S. is going through one of its periodic phases of self-contempt. But almost a quarter of the world’s economic output currently is in the United States, and the U.S. has the only genuinely global military capability. In evaluating the situation, U.S. planners must always bear in mind the true correlation of power, and not be diverted by stolen emails or the state of naval drones. They are interesting points on which to engage, but they do not represent true balance of power...."...

Good article

good article, example of overestimation was "The Threat" propaganda about the mighty Bear (USSR) that was used to justify massive defense spending in 80's, the reality was an economy on the verge of economic collapse, ships rusting in port, troops not being paid and similar, I've been to Paldiski Port near Tallin, Estonia, it was a former nuke sub and Baltic Fleet base and was a scrap heap, not sure if it was overestimation or intentional to sway public opinion in order to push high defense budgets, caused folks like SecNav Lehman to push for 600 ship USN