Recessional for a retiring power

The Washington Times ^ | 1 March 2013 | Victor Davis Hanson

[COBOL2Java]

Republicans and Democrats are blaming one another for impending cuts to the defense budget brought about by sequestration. With serial annual deficits of $1 trillion-plus, however, and an aggregate debt nearing $17 trillion, the United States — like an insolvent Rome and exhausted Great Britain of the past — was bound to re-examine its expensive overseas commitments and strategic profile.

President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel for defense secretary was a sort of Zen-like way of having a Republican combat veteran orchestrate a reduced military. In fact, Mr. Obama has nurtured a broad and diverse constituency for his neoisolationist vision. Budget hawks concede that defense must suffer its fair share of cuts. Libertarians want their republic back and hate the big-government baggage that comes along with military involvement overseas.

Leftists agree, adding that the United States has neither the moral authority nor the wherewithal to manage events overseas. For liberals, a scaled-back military presence abroad means more entitlements at home. For each F-22 Raptor not built, about another 20,000 families could receive food stamps for a year.

The American public — exhausted by Iraq and Afghanistan — is receptive to all the above arguments. If our poorer grandparents thought 70 percent of the annual U.S. budget devoted to defense after the Korean War was about right, we, the more affluent, insist that even the present 20 percent is far too costly.

The result is that we lead from behind in Libya. France leads from the front in Mali. Syria and Iran shrug off Mr. Obama’s periodic sermons to behave. Our reset with Russia was abruptly reset by Russia. American policy in the Middle East could be summed up as “whatever” — as we become only mildly miffed that distasteful authoritarian allies are replaced by more distasteful Islamist enemies.

[Jim Robinson]

Oh, how happy we’re all gonna be when we’re all on foodstamps, paid for by the “wealthy.” Free healthcare, free education, free housing and free lunches for all. And free O-Phones.

[guardian_of_liberty]

Maybe the Indians will take America back.

[Argus]

Obama won’t be satisfied until the whole country’s Detroit - defenseless, lawless, and broke.

[mc5cents]

In our relief from the vast costs and burdens of maintaining the postwar global order, though, we might at least acknowledge the truth, past and present: Just as the world was a far better place after 1945 because of an engaged United States, so it will probably become a much worse place owing to an increasingly absent America.

Indeed. VDH is spot on.