ELAND: Reining in the empire

Mr. Eland has left the tail off of the dragon. The military is said to be 25% fighting force and 75% logistics and support. From that the quick reaction force supplies are delivered by air and the heavy lifting is done by sea. Unless there is a nuclear supply ship out there as big as an aircraft carrier, those forward deployed forces are going to have to return to base. I haven't seen the USS Fleet and Industrial Supply Center afloat yet. Additionally, battlegroups are not committed to acting alone. The optempo of covering all of sea lanes of communication at the same time as covering land basis would require a Navy and Marine force at least the size of World War II. The Defense Department would love it, but the American tax payer could not afford it. If anything is going to rein in the "Empire", it is the dysfunctional multilateralism of the 1990's, global consensus and regional compliance driven by regional interests and exceptions to consensus. Per John Van Oudenaren, multilateralism is primarily an economic policy. Mr. Eland needs to seek the knowledge of the U.S. Navy before burdening them with all global strategic missions.