He should also be realistic about what British military force can accomplish; despite plans for welcome increases in defence spending, RAF capability in the region is limited.
The gap in military spending and capability between the United States and the rest of NATO has been growing so large as to make NATO seem irrelevant.
"With independence, Scotland can and will match the defence spending and capabilities of Norway and comparable European neighbours, providing professional, conventional forces with Scotland's current level of contribution to the MOD," he said.
Like China, India is rapidly expanding its military capabilities, spending an estimated $100bn on new defence systems since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014.
He has said almost nothing about the other side of the cybereffort, billions of dollars spent on offensive capability, much of it based inside the National Security Agency.
Investments reinforce the commitment: SAP's purchase of Business Objects was its biggest acquisition ever, while IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Google have also spent billions buying capability in this area.
There is still a huge gap in American and allied military capabilities and spending.
"We're making progress in what is a fiercely competitive world, against competitors that have the capability to spend far more money than we do," he told ESPN.
So why is most of this ministry's budget spent on retaining a capability against the emergence of a direct conventional strategic threat?
If the Malverns are a dream of England, they are one that Lancelot "Capability" Brown spent his life attempting to make into reality.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last night voiced fears that the Coalition Government's determination to slash defence spending may threaten the capabilities of Nato.
