After watching the President over his first term, it is clear that he doesn’t truly appreciate the role our military plays in maintaining world order. No sooner had he finished taking the oath of office than he was running around the world apologizing for what he views as America’s egregious crimes in the War on Terror – as if he forgot why it began in the first place.
Concordantly, when asked if he believes in American exceptionalism, his answer was appalling. He said, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” His answer to this question shows a blatant lack of respect for the unique place our country holds in the world. We are an exceptional nation. Our armed forces have saved the free world from tyranny countless times since our founding and continue to do so to this day.
Our American exceptionalism is only as strong as our ability to decisively defend it. If we ever fail in this capacity, our ability to protect and defend our allies and our freedoms is compromised. As sequestration looms on the horizon, we need to shield our military and our military technology from these draconian spending cuts. Almost half of the mandatory $110 billion spending cuts come from defense – the only real purpose of government defined by our founders. As we support the Romney/Ryan budget, we need to fervently advocate on behalf of defense research and development to ensure our nation maintains our military superiority into the next century.
While there is certainly wasteful spending that needs to be cut from the Pentagon, putting most of the burden on our armed forces to cut a deficit caused by entitlements and rising healthcare costs is a reckless decision. Additionally, while we can no longer afford costly nation building operations overseas, we should expand our blue water navy to be able to effectively counter new technology from Asia.
Liberal democrats often try to justify defense cuts by stating that we have a bigger army, navy, and air force then the next “x” nations combined. They’re exactly correct; we have more ships, more aircraft, more submarines, and more missiles than anyone else for a reason – we provide global security around the world. We can operate anytime and anywhere we choose with the resources we need to ensure our interests are protected and our national security is ensured. Our European allies can afford to dump billions into social programs thanks to protection we provide. That is why we spend billions on defense and why we must continue to do so into the next century. Our American exceptionalism is only as strong as the future of our military, and we must protect it at all costs.
Comments