I'm not sure that interpreting Taiclet's response as "we need to mimic authoritarian regimes" is quite right. It seems to me that what he's really saying is "as

I'm not sure that interpreting Taiclet's response as "we need to mimic authoritarian regimes" is quite right. It seems to me that what he's really saying is "as long as we have more competition than our authoritarian opponents, we're just fine". Of course, there is very little practical difference between tacking towards more consolidation as a result of explicit mimicry vs. as a result of shifting the Overton Window except perhaps in rhetorical terms of the stated preferred end state ("duopolies are more competitive than monopolies, right?")