As someone who reads a lot of these documents too, will have to concur with @Brett327 that ranking the threat from SOUTHCOM above that from CENTCOM in terms of “considerable damage to US and allies” is wrong.I don't give a shit about 'conflict.' I give a shit about the ability to inflict considerable damage on the U.S. We're spending billions of dollars and thousands of lives to fuck around with criminals who have very limited ability to reach out and touch us because of a revenge mission from 20 years ago.
Since you like sucking the teet of senior officers, and disregard anyone's opinion who is junior in rank to you, I'll just leave this here.
And in case you think he's being alarmist, the concerns are repeated by the current USSOUTHCOM...with the additional concern of PRC influence in the region.
But I do appreciate your hubris that I'm too stupid to be aware of and read such documents.
Yes, every General/Admiral who runs SOUTHCOM fights for their slice of the funding pie with your linked documents…the ones that matter are the NDS and NMS, both of which are much more concerned about threats from the CENTCOM AOR than anything coming from SOUTHCOM.
Where we spend our money backs that up.
If anything, I’d be willing to discuss the influence on AFRICOM vice SOUTHCOM, as I think they rank much more closely on the expenditure scale. This year, AFRICOM increased their funding, while SOUTHCOM decreased theirs…
There is currently little to no existential threat coming from South America…the same can’t be said for China in INDOPACOM, with a regional hegemonic threat from Russia in EUCOM/IP/AFRICOM/CENTCOM areas.
While there is definitely interest in investment from both in S.A., the majority of their effort is elsewhere.
Before you accuse me of “teet sucking” I've hit terminal velocity WRT rank, and have been/am a bit off the beaten career path.