Tag Archives: Defense

Freedom’s Enemies See Weakness in Obama

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This week I have written a lot about defense spending, and the need to ensure that the United States maintains the world’s premier fighting forces. “If we know anything, it is that weakness is provocative,” as Secretary Rumsfeld said. President Obama has demonstrated the validity this axiom time and again.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that North Korea has been aggressively pursuing their nuclear weapons program. Today, North Korea fired artillery shells at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, in the most serious military action in Korea sine the 1950-53 war.

The bottom line here is that Freedom’s enemies see a weak American president and they want to capitalize on this opportunity. President Obama has been gutting the military (Michael Auslin’s article on the hollowing out of the Air Force is frightening), pandering to dictators, and snubbing allies. The logical result of Obama’s actions is a challenge from America’s enemies.

The last president to look as impotent as Obama was Jimmy Carter. If you are looking for a single person to blame for the current regime in Iran, you can look to Jimmy Carter. President Carter’s asinine handling of the the Shah of Iran and the jihadist revolution is the reason that Iran is ruled by a genocidal death cult, as opposed to staunch Western ally. The incompetence of one president can change the geopolitical map forever.

Enemy regimes see the Obama presidency as an opportunity to advance their goals and fill the power vacuum the United States is creating. What will Obama do about the North Korean’s actions? Denounce them in at the next United Nations meeting? Nothing scares maniac dictators more than a mildly worded letter threatening future, more sternly worded letters, from a bloated and worthless bureaucracy.

China is North Korea’s enabler. They keep the despotic regime afloat. The Chinese see a pesky North Korea as a valuable distraction to be used against the United States. While the United States is focused on North Korea, the Chinese have been able to expand their power and influence within Asia.

Knowing that North Korea is dependent upon China for essentially everything, North Korea would have had to clear today’s military actions with the Chinese. What if this is a rehearsal to gauge President Obama’s resolve? The attacks on South Korea could just be about Korea, or it could be about China preparing to move on Taiwan.

The ChiComs have coveted the Republic of China since the United States abandoned the free Chinese in favor of the communists after World War II. What would Obama do if China moved on Taiwan? Could the United States do anything that would anger their financier? Obama is weak and the world knows it. The Obama presidency will prove to be one of the most disastrous decisions the American electorate has ever made.

Do NOT Cut Defense Spending

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None of the four wars in my lifetime came about because we were too strong. It’s weakness that invites adventurous adversaries to make mistaken judgments. America is the most peaceful, least warlike nation in modern history. We are not the cause of all the ills of the world. We’re a patient and generous people. But for the sake of our freedom and that of others, we cannot permit our reserve to be confused with a lack of resolve.
-Ronald Reagan

With the United States’ debt finally getting the attention it deserves, the discussion has shifted to deciding what parts of the budget to strip down. It seems as though the one area ready to be tackled is military spending.

A brief history lesson:

For whatever reason, the only part of the budget the Left ever wants to reduce is military spending. The Right has also taken part in this fascination. After World War I, a Republican administration gutted the military, in the hopes of preventing another war. The result, a weak West was dragged into World War II.

During the Cold War, Presidents Nixon and Carter also stripped down the military. Weakness emboldened the Soviet Union, and encouraged them to continue their expansionist policies. Thankfully, the Soviet Union was stopped  by Ronald Reagan, who rebuilt the United States military.

After President Reagan won the Cold War, President Clinton proceeded to once again gut the military. True to form, the result was an all-out war declared on the United States, this time by jihadists. The brilliant leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld led to the desperately needed modernization of the United States military.

Where we are today:

President Obama made it clear when he came to office that the only place his budget ‘scalpel’ would even touch was the Pentagon. Upon assuming office, President Obama immediately scrapped missile defense and threatened to veto the F-22 Raptor, a project that was eventually thrown by the wayside in Congress. In fact, a staggering 80% of Obama’s proposed budget cuts have been targeted at the Defense Department. Obama explained: “We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter and waste is not our problem.” That is true, the United States does have to get spending under control, and fast.

The new Republican Congress got elected largely campaigning against liberal tax-and-spend recklessness. The debt is a serious problem. Even Hillary Clinton has identified the national debt as a true national security threat. The government must be cut down to size and retain only its Constitutionally allotted powers.

The Defense Department, just like any other government department, is definitely guilty of waste, fraud and abuse. However, cutting legitimate defense programs is absolutely the wrong place to be looking for savings.

In a world rife with threats to freedom, destroying the arsenal of democracy is one of the worst ideas imaginable. The United States cannot hide behind the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The enemies of freedom will not go away if America retreats. Instead, Evil will march. President Reagan’s ‘peace through strength’ should never be abandoned.