Washington Weakens Defense Posture Again

by: jason hammond | published: 08 03, 2010

If there is one common thread found between today's Republican and Democrat leadership, then it is on proposed Defense Spending.  Both Obama's 2011 budget and the Republican Study Committee 2011 budget reduce overall defense spending down to the 2008 level by 2020.  In a time where our country needs to be ready for an attack or respond to an attack, our leaders in Washington want to provide less funding for their #1 Constitutional Responsibility:  PROVIDE for the Common Defense.

As I have pointed out in a previous post on here, our adversaries such as Russia, China, Iran and other terrorist organizations are increasing funding every year to retool and modernize their military.  The U.S. is starting to show signs that it no longer believes in the Reagan Motto of "peace through strength."

The "peace through strength" was accomplished by building our arsenal larger and more technologically advanced throughout the 1980's during Reagan's presidency.  This allowed Reagan and the next President after him to be able to grapple and negotiate with Moscow.  No longer could the Soviets snub the U.S. as being the weaker party.

Today, we not only have Russia to confront, but other countries such as Iran and North Korea as well as terrorist organizations.  The U.S. cannot give a perception of weakness or timidness to the rest of the world.  We must remain strong and firm in all our dealings.  The U.S. cannot deal with Russia nor any other world power if you are weak; the Russians and every other hostile country will not be generous, will not be compassionate, will not do any kind favors.

Possessing military superiority and strength gives the U.S. a position of strength to negotiate with other world powers.  This position cannot be accomplished with by signing treaties that reduce our arsenals, limits our response to an attack, dictates how strong of a missile shield we should or should not have throughout the world.  We are in the midst of two hard wars and our military needs fresh capital to modernize and build up our arsenal even more than what was needed back in the 1980's.

A portion of a speech by Reagan on March 23, 1983 certainly captures the surreal scenario we have today:  "This is why I'm speaking to you tonight to urge you to tell your Senators and Congressmen that you know we must continue to restore our military strength. If we stop in midstream, we will send a signal of decline, of lessened will, to friends and adversaries alike. Free people must voluntarily through open debate and democratic means, meet the challenge that totalitarians pose by compulsion. It's up to us, in our time, to choose and choose wisely between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day."

We as the law-abiding citizens of this country must petition our leaders to fulfill their top duty first and foremost.  Forget about all those job-killing entitlements and favors for their political buddies.  No one can prosper in this country if our defense is weak and prone to attacks.  If we fail to properly supply our military with the necessary tools, then we may experience the dreadful reality of being a reduced superpower isolated in a position of weakness among the rest of the world.

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