In Future Wars, the U.S. Military Will Have Nowhere to Hide
New technologies enable Russia and China to destroy U.S. bases and logistics networks—including those on the homeland.
By Michael Beckley | November 20, 2019, 3:22 PM
For most of its history, the United States has had the luxury of fighting its wars from safe havens. No major international battles have taken place on the continental United States in more than two centuries, and its offshore territory has not suffered a serious attack since Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in World War II. For the past few decades, even U.S. bases on foreign soil have faced few conventional military threats.
The unprecedented immunity has enabled a particular American way of war that involves massive assaults launched from nearly invulnerable and geographically removed sanctuaries. In recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Serbia, for example, the U.S. military used secure bases and logistics networks stretching from the U.S. heartland to the enemy’s borders. From these vast safe spaces, the military was able to pick its battles strategically and churn out air and missile strikes with industrial efficiency. As a result, the outcomes of the immediate wars—if not their aftermaths—were never in doubt.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/20/russia-china-increasingly-able-attack-united-states-bases-networks-war/
