I’m shifting what I was going to post today, because I realized Sunday night that this is the most important thing to start the week with.

We need drastic change in our senior leadership, and whoever is brought to the front must sharply shift in tone and substance from the standard behavior of this century.

We must put to the side the system of incentives and disincentives we use to promote our most senior leaders. This last quarter century’s process has a record of consistently producing sub-optimal performance. This isn’t just my opinion. Look at everything from how we manage our people using a Cold War framework, to program management that cannot design a laudable warship or a fit-for-purpose airwing, to the shambolic results of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and the Horn of Africa.

The results speak for themselves.

No, even if we ignore that dysfunction, we have to look at the potential conflict that presents the greatest danger to our nation’s power, economy, and that of our allies—the threat that would, if it has its way, change the international order in ways that will reverse centuries of progress.