Congressman Randy Forbes, a Republican from Virginia, is tired of defense analysts, reporters, and policymakers skirting around the C-word.
That would be China.
The representative, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, feels that the national security establishment has refused to speak openly about the reason why we're shifting the axis of the United States Military into the Pacific.
He's tired of dodging the issue.
Namely, a certain "competitor" which has created a series of investments into military technology, armament and forces, a region which is worthy of some oversight and monitoring.
That, in Forbes' opinion, is euphemistic national security-speak for China, and he just wants people to come out and say it already.
He refers to remarks by Naval War College professors which compare the national security establishment's handling of China to the character Voldemort of Harry Potter renown. An adversary whose name cannot be spoken, lest dire consequences occur.
And the other day, he came out strongly for discussing China openly.
He rails, in a column for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), against a defense establishment which refuses to mention the People's Republic of China (PRC) even when policy is developed to respond to only China.
You can read Forbes' entire piece here
For instance, he refers to recent developments in air-sea battle concepts designed to respond to anti-access/area-denial capabilities.
You know, like the ones that the PRC is developing.
Even when discussing those concepts and the cause of their development, Forbes says that "Pentagon officials have gone to great lengths to insist its development is not about China."
Forbes does insist that he doesn't mean to imply that conflict is inevitable with the world's largest country. He just believes that China has a "clear intention to focus on undermining traditional US military advantages."
It's understandable, then, that the Chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness argues that the "best way to avoid great-power conflict is to remain vigilantly prepared."
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