A strong national defense means defending the United States. While that should be obvious, it’s not to the Democratic and Republican parties.
If we go to war, we should declare it, fight it and win it. Declaring war creates a plan and an objective. We’ve lost or are still fighting the vast majority of wars we’ve failed to declare. When you win a war, there is no enemy and you need no occupying force for the long term. Unlike the Democratic and Republican parties, I assert a difference between war and aimless nation building.
Fighting terrorism means targeting only terrorists, not nation building. Letters of marque and reprisal are in the Constitution for this reason. Again, common sense dictates that you defend your country from attack by dealing specifically with the attacker.
National defense does not include policing the world and managing the affairs of other nations. Doing so means over extending our military, intervening in cultures we don’t understand and creating enemies we don’t need. Ultimately, it’s a barrier to promoting the freedom we claim to support.
We have the technology and resources to hit any target on the face of planet Earth. We have satellites that can find an ant from space. With a strong Navy, Air Force and nuclear deterrent, we don’t need 700 military bases in 130 countries.
Spending a trillion dollars per year on our overseas empire of bases is obsolete and wasteful. It is time to bring the troops home. Instead of outspending the rest of the world on defense for something that is offense, we could eliminate the income tax and increase national security.
We should eliminate nation building while strengthening our Navy and Air Force to protect our nation and commerce. The 2nd district in particular would benefit. Submarines are extremely useful and vital to this approach.
Above all, we should readopt Thomas Jefferson’s approach of friendship and trade with all and entangling alliances with none.
