From everything I have read lately, many military and foreign policy experts believe the United States and the world are in uncharted territory in terms of the threat to peace, security and global order. Among those experts is Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, retiring chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who says the “international environment” has become “uncertain, chaotic and confused,” and that we are in a period of conflict that may be “prolonged” and “unprecedented.”
Evidence confirming his worry abounds. In Syria and Iraq, a jihadist offshoot that makes al-Qaeda look centrist is creating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and butchering all who oppose it or won’t join it. Libya has collapsed into chaos. Iran is attempting to build nuclear weapons. The entire Middle East is on fire, as Israel and Hamas engage in ceaseless battle. China is becoming increasingly belligerent in Asia. And, according to Gen. Flynn, today there are nearly twice as many Islamic terrorist groups (41) as there were a decade ago (21), and they operate in many more countries.
As a result, according to both Gen. Flynn and a recent report by the bipartisan National Defense Panel (NDP), America is in more danger than it was on Sept. 11, 2001. And yet we have been drastically cutting our defense budget. The NDP report states that the size of U.S. forces “necessary 20 years ago, when the world was much more stable and less risky,” would be inadequate today, and yet, our forces today are “substantially smaller” than they were 20 years ago.
The report adds, “given the proliferating security threats, any reasonable review would conclude that the Navy and Air Force should be larger than they are today,” while also noting that the Obama administration’s latest Defense Review recommendations would actually reduce the strength of the Army. Finally the report stated that the force reductions “have been imposed with no analysis of their impact on short- or long-term readiness,” and that these reductions “have prompted our current and potential allies and adversaries to question our commitment and resolve.”
To put this in perspective, according to its own language, one of the Constitution’s six primary goals is to “provide for the common defense,” which is critical to achieving its five other goals, especially to “insure domestic Tranquility,” and “secure the Blessings of Liberty.” If we can’t defend our country from attack, our rights under the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence are worthless. The Founders understood that clearly, which is why they made national defense the highest priority of the national government. Do our national leaders, especially President Obama, whose number one job is to defend the nation, understand this today?
