November 30,
2000
Lt. General Patrick M. Hughes,
United States Army, Retired.
In his
excellent presentation,
General Patrick Hughes offered a realistic
assessment of our military preparedness. He told point
blanc to the members of our Executive Lecture Forum
that the United States presently is not capable to
fight two major theater wars. There is no way, he said
that we can conduct, for instance, simultaneously a
war in Korea and a war in the Middle East. The moral
of our military is low. The young military’s
expectation for a stable life is not met. Their
training is not as good as it used to be. According to
the General’s opinion, our standing force can not
respond to any sudden emergency. He spoke at great
length about the threat from abroad. He maintained
that there is no large scale threat right now. He
viewed China as a potential single country that might
become a threat in the future, Russia, as it stands
now, is not a threat. The real threats are coming from
countries supporting terrorism, he said. He concluded,
by stating that the administration in Washington needs
to strengthen the intelligence activity for our
homeland defense.
