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Another Conservative Perspective

by on January 20, 2012 in Department of Defense

While we generally think of “conservatives” as being strong supporters of the American military; there is an older tradition in which conservatives argued for less foreign entanglements and a small military.  Mr. Robert Robb over at the Arizona Republic makes a strong argument for a return to an older and more traditional National Defense Strategy.  The heart of his arguement is that a large military leads us to adventurism and does not in the long run make us safer.

Comments (8)

Comments

  1. DaveO says:
    January 20, 2012 at 10:31 pm

    Townie,

    Good food for thought, as always. Let’s flip this around:

    If America is to maintain a dominant presence in the global economy, it must have the means to project power. That power can be military, or it can be diplomatic+economic. Our State Department isn’t exactly the Mayweather of diplomacy… more like Peewee Herman looking for his Word of the Day.

    Which isn’t “Reset.”

    Or, we accept the current President’s vision and slip into the same military and economic obscurity that our diplomatic corps resides in.

    • UltimaRatioRegis says:
      January 21, 2012 at 9:11 am

      Excellent points, Dave. To me the author’s view is rather simplistic and naive, somewhat dangerously so.

      The comparison of what our $475B buys in the US to what other budget figures buy in their respective countries and economies is much more worthwhile.

      Also, an active military of 1.43 million is very small for a nation of 310 million. Per capita, our military is much smaller than average, and is smaller than such non-global powers as Belarus, Norway, Sri Lanka, and Malta. Greece’s military is three times larger than ours, proportionally, Singapore, four times.

      We are proportionally dwarfed also by our allies in South Korea (2.5x), Israel (5x), and Taiwan (3x), and some enemies such as North Korea (11x), and Syria (3.5x).

      Not a believer in a super-large standing military, but I do think it prudent that the NSS/NMS be backed up with sufficient forces to make those documents something other than placemats.

      • DaveO says:
        January 21, 2012 at 11:12 am

        True all, but there is the idea that it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Since the Progressives are determined to turn our military into Chihuahuas, I want it to have all the fight and capabilities of an Irish Wolfhound.

        A lot of this discussion may become OBE, if the reports coming out of China are true: house of cards economy, disconnected Party elite, and the warlords in the PLA/N/AF wanting some glory before they lose the strategic wherewithal to gain it.

        • UltimaRatioRegis says:
          January 21, 2012 at 1:00 pm

          Dave,

          Oddly, we could REDUCE the Defense budget by canning all the distractions and superfluous staffers with the Diversity and sensitivity nonsense. We could also cut a ton of lawyers from JAG staffs and tell the world we intend to kill people who are trying to kill us, and if you don’t want to get hurt, stay the hell out of the way. No more Lawfare BS.

          If we could un-ass shipbuilding and airframe acquisition (which means un-assing NAVSEA and NAVAIR, and, though somewhat unlikely, the USAF), we could much better and more effectively spend the taxpayers’ treasure.

    • Jeff Sale says:
      January 21, 2012 at 11:47 am

      What we NEED more than anything in the world, is the return to a solid, moral people governing our country, this needs to be founded in God. This is the only way our nation will continue, once a country loses its sight, once it goes blind to good and evil, it will always fall to evil. Once a nation falls to evil, it is the beginning of the end for that country.

      • DaveO says:
        January 22, 2012 at 5:22 pm

        Anything made by man ends. Anything governed by man ends sooner.

      • Bill Cooper says:
        February 1, 2012 at 10:37 am

        Great plan, but whose God do we follow? Protestant evangelical God, Catholic God, Jewish God, Old Testament or New Testamnet God? Buddah, Vishnu, the Great Spirit, and so on? The last thing we need is a strategy dictated by “Deus Vult!” since it has worked so well in the past.

        • Jeff Sale says:
          February 1, 2012 at 10:55 am

          There is only one God, it is the Holy Trinity. “Pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” – Jesus Christ

          I am talking about a return to morals in society. Our Nation has helped spread the acceptance of abortion throughout the world. This is one our Nation’s greatest sins, the murder of the most innocent human life in the womb. Actually over 54,000,000 murders of babies in the womb in USA alone during the past 39 years.