- The tragic events of the past month have forced both
President Bush and Congress to reassess the priorities of our federal government.
The obvious consensus is that we have to do a better job of protecting
Americans against future acts of war here on our own soil. Indeed, the
President has promised that his administration will use every available
resource to fight the war on terrorism. Yet our most potent resource, the
U.S. military, is spread far too thin around the world to adequately protect
us from growing terrorist hostilities and the possibility of a full-scale
war.
-
- The sober reality is that on September 11th millions
of foreigners abroad were better protected by American armed forces than
were our own citizens at home. In fact, on that fateful morning we had
tens of thousands of soldiers and billions of dollars in weapons deployed
worldwide- all standing by helplessly while our citizens were savagely
attacked in New York and Washington. It is beyond frustrating to consider
that there are literally dozens of places around the globe where an unauthorized
commercial jet straying off course would have been confronted by American
fighters, yet the New York skyline and even the Pentagon were left almost
completely unprotected. The American people have a right to know, for example,
why the Iraq-Kuwait border, the DMZ between North and South Korea, and
the skies over Serbia were better defended that morning than our own cities,
borders, and skies.
-
- We must understand that U.S. troops currently are permanently
or semi-permanently stationed in more than one hundred countries. As one
prominent columnist recently noted, the 15 years since the collapse of
the Soviet empire and the end of the Cold War have hardly been peaceful
for the United States. Our armed forces have been engaged in dozens of
conflicts, including Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, and Kosovo. We currently maintain
active military commitments throughout the Middle East, Colombia and Central
America, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, central Asia, and the Taiwan Strait.
We undoubtedly are involved in more regional conflicts than any other time
in our history; in fact, our present obligations make the east vs.west
Cold War seem relatively manageable! Yet our military is only half the
size it was during the Reagan era. This imbalance between our shrinking
armed forces and our ever-growing military role in foreign disputes leaves
our own borders woefully unprotected.
-
- Examples of the ill effects of our misguided policies
are not hard to find. Consider the Coast Guard, whose seemingly obvious
mission is to secure America's coastlines. So why are Coast Guard vessels
busy patrolling Mediterranean waters and the shoreline of Colombia? Similarly,
why do we need the help of German NATO AWACS planes to patrol American
skies when we have 33 of our own? Are all 33 being used overseas?
-
- The simple solution is not huge increases in defense
spending. The federal budget is not unlimited; taxpayers cannot be expected
to pay infinite amounts of money for national defense. While non-defense
spending certainly should be cut drastically, the most realistic approach
is to reassign most of our troops currently overseas to stateside duty
defending our borders.
-
- Clearly our efforts in playing policeman to the world
have failed to make us more secure. This does not mean that we are in any
way responsible for the barbaric acts of Bin Laden or any other fanatical
murders who hate the U.S. Yet we have no choice but to honestly assess
the threats we now face here at home in the wake of these terrorist attacks.
The most basic and important function of our government must be to provide
national defense, and our overseas commitments directly interfere with
the government's ability to defend you and your family.
-
- http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2001/tst102201.htm
|