The sooner we can elect an “American” President that fully understands and gets the fact that a strong armed force actually promotes peace and stability (good fences make good neighbors) the better off our country will be. Some of the things I’m watching this WH do, scare the living day lights out of me.
But until then, we are stuck with the mentality that “defense is bad, welfare is good” - The US will continue to think “cost savings” and “cost reductions” in the armed forces are a good thing. We saw how well that worked in the 90’s.
The numbers don’t lie - under the Clinton administration they took the whole “peace dividend” and ran with it, cutting and gutting defense programs, projects, personnel, intelligence gathering, and weaponry right to the bone - In my opinion, they were responsible for covering our eyes and plugging our ears to the point that 9/11 was even possible.
I always felt that the Bush administration had the defense our nation as priority A1A - Looking at the facts today, I don’t get that feeling from this administration. Defense for them falls somewhere below making sure acorn is fully funded and supported to get the democrats elected in 2010 and him re-elected in 2012. Just my opinion.
As I recall a good principle is if you want peace, prepare for war. We pay for our “leader’s” mistakes in blood. The people ultimately suffer when we have bad leaders.