Retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer on Monday said a scathing report highlighting how the United States has slumped into dangerously low levels of weapons stockpiles exposes the nation's "weakness" amid Russia's war with Ukraine.
In an interview on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now," Shaffer, current president of the London Center for Policy Research, called the evidence in the report obtained by Newsmax "a trend that's very dangerous."
The Bank of America Securities report showed presidential drawdowns have reduced U.S. weapons stockpiles to levels not seen in decades.
The report said the United States had committed nearly $8.4 billion through presidential drawdowns — more than half of the overall $16.2 in security aid — since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his unprovoked attack Feb. 24.
But Shaffer also pointed out there are other weaknesses coming to light as the Russia-Urkaine war rages.
"We've also seen just within the last few days a report of the Army falling short 25% of its recruiting goals," he said.
"Every major conflict United States has gone into over the past 100 or so years, we've always had the ability to ramp up.
"From World War I there was a full-year ramp-up to go to war," he said. "World War II, we had a running start in the late '30s. During the Reagan years, I was part of the Reagan buildup … and in the early '80s we were prepared to do a full blown push against the Soviets to basically break their ability to conduct war."
But he lamented that now, "we're doing the opposite."
"Instead of being prepared and showing strength to deter potential conflict, as we did in the '80s, we're actually showing more weakness by the fact we're expanding all these things without a clear plan or a rapid replenishment process," Shaffer said.
"As it was just reported, it's going to take years in some cases, and that's not a good position for us to be in when we see both China and Russia pushing to expand conflicts within their their respective regions."
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