Dakota Beacon

On Thursday, January 4, 2012, President Obama announced a new US military strategy guaranteeing deep cuts in national security. The decision to announce the new strategy personally underscores deep divisions within the Department of Defense.

Military intelligence analysts are quite capable of defining the threat to the United States. The National Intelligence Estimate looks forward 10, 20 and 30 years and is predominantly a military effort executed reasonably well. Setting the policy that protects the nation, on the other hand, is a political function subject to the forces of political self-interest. Planning for national security in a dangerous world leaves little room for error.

Over the decades military planners consistently emphasized to congress that to make America 100% secure would be unaffordable. Therefore, military planners offered a variety of options proposing something less that 100% security and congress bought the protection they believe Americans were willing to pay for. Quietly, politicians assumed the risk for the shortfall and hoped they were not in office when the shoe fell. That is an oversimplification, but that’s how it works. Less funding means more risk.

My own military background tells me that this administration is toying with national security for short term political gain. That compounds the danger to America from the world in which we live.

Unlike agriculture, education, health care, Social Security, Medicare, energy and other programs not mentioned in the US Constitution, the Constitution specifically addresses provisions for national security in Article I, Section 8, Clauses 11 through 16 and Article II, Section 2, Clause 1. National defense is paramount. Without securing the United States, all other federal provisions mean nothing.

We’ve repeatedly seen the “drawdown mentality” on parade throughout the 20th Century. Following every war, hot or cold, the US, in most cases, shrank its military to the point of virtual ineffectiveness. Following every drawdown, like clockwork, a rebuild of our armed forces was necessary to deter and defend against aggression.

Have we learned nothing from a century’s worth of experience? A very plausible argument has been made that the perceived weakness of America may well promulgate the next conflict. Early in our nation’s history the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me” meant something. It gave fair warning to any who would transgress America’s vital interests. Will it hold meaning again?

How much more costly is this seesawing back and forth than it would be to maintain a prudent force to begin with? Excessive drawdown will cost more to restore the armed forces than to have maintained them in the first place. With the United States now broke, restoration of adequate security will happen more slowly if at all.

Senior US military leaders testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in late July delivered a stark yet truthful assessment which they are professionally obliged to do on matters of national security. With one voice these military leaders warned that very large cuts in defense spending will, in their words, “break the force.” Our armed forces cannot maintain a forward presence in the world, provide humanitarian disaster relief at home and abroad, conduct training for dozens of allied countries and conduct endless overseas deployments while expecting to retain an all volunteer force in tact. All of this is in addition to the first mission of maintaining a warfighting capability. Impose a trillion dollars of budget cuts and a capable armed force becomes unsustainable.

I’m not given to prognostication. That said, as sure as the sun rises I can foresee in my lifetime (and I’m a sexagenarian) a substantial threat to American national security resulting in a major conflict for which we will be unprepared. Among other things, we may find ourselves reinstating a military draft. The follow-on loss of life and treasure will be far more than if we had maintained a reasonably lean superior military capability.

My generation will be long gone and the next generation will have to learn painful lessons all over again which earlier generations learned for themselves through blood, sweat and tears.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).