US “Project Meridian” — A Symptom of American Decline, Not a Solution

The creation of “Project Meridian” is not a path to US military superiority but an admission of its own weakness, rooted in a financialized system rather than a technology gap.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently announced the creation of the 120 day task force, “Project Meridian.”

At face value, the initiative serves as a further symptom of the US’ terminal decline rather than any sort of path toward “long-term military superiority” or “absolute technological dominance.”

The necessity of the project itself is an oblique admission of current and growing US military weakness — increasingly on display amid US wars and proxy wars worldwide in which US weapons are both falling behind in capabilities and quantities.

The stated path the project seeks to take to address this growing military weakness — “leveraging the nation’s premier private-sector innovators, business leaders, and technologists” to “discover and accelerate the fielding of advanced systems” — ignores completely the fundamentals of the US system which is directly responsible for this growing weakness and dysfunction relative to the rising multipolar world and especially China, in the first place.

The idea that future technologies and “wonder weapons” can somehow restore US military power around the globe in the face of a rising multipolar world order ignores the pressing fundamental questions regarding why the US seeks to project military power worldwide to begin with, whether it is necessary or not, and whether it is sustainable or even possible to do so.

The Root of the Problem

The “private-sector” — large corporate-financier monopolies predicated on the perpetual pursuit of profit and power (driven by shareholder primacy) and which have captured and control US foreign and domestic policy toward that end — are what drives the US’ global military presence and the “need” for “long-term military superiority.”

The multitude of wars, proxy wars, and potential wars the US is instigating at any given time around the globe are aimed at eliminating any obstacle to the power and profit of this “private-sector” and to implement the coercion of and control over nations and regions the US has already successfully subordinated.

Thus, this military power is not used to uphold the legitimate national security of the people and territory of the United States — but as a means of undermining and overcoming the national security of other people and territories abroad.

Proponents of US primacy would argue that if the US did not seek global primacy, others would — a false premise based on an interpretation of “realism” hat assumes all people and nations are driven by the........

© New Eastern Outlook