As currently postured, the index concludes that “the U.S. military is getting older faster than it is getting modern. During the Obama administration, ships and crews were worn out, several Air Force fighter squadrons were grounded due to lack of funding, and bureaucratic initiatives arrested the development of a generation of promising sailors and pilots. In underfunding the Pentagon, Biden has stolen a page not just from President Jimmy Carter but from the Obama playbook, too. In case any world leader failed to pick up on that clue, the administration followed with the debacle in Afghanistan. With China continuing its massive military modernization program and increasingly threatening its neighbors, the administration opted to open the government spending spigot, while defense and homeland security were set to receive a few extra droplets. It did not take the Biden administration long to signal American weakness.

The Carter years have returned with a vengeance. There was no fuel for vehicles and no money for training, and the carriers were stuck in port. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and Cuban proxies were rampaging through southern Africa. In the 1970s, the world assumed the United States was on an inevitable decline riven by problems at home and indecisiveness abroad.

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