Four Percent for Freedom

The Heritage Foundation released a paper today entitled "Providing for the Common Defense: Four Percent for Freedom." It points out that our defense spending will fall to just 3.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2012, and raising that to 4% would make a great difference in defending this country of ours.

The federal government has been ignoring the need to develop and build the next generation of weapons and equipment since the early 1990s. The military is facing similar funding dilemmas this decade as modernization needs are displaced by immediate demands to fund military operations, including those in Afghanistan and Iraq, in both the baseline budget and supplemental appropriations. As a direct result of the massive budgetary cuts fol?lowing Operation Desert Storm, today's force is roughly half the size of the military in the early 1990s. The Army has been reduced from 18 divi?sions to 10, the Air Force from 37 tactical air wings to 20, and the Navy from 568 ships in the late 1980s to a fleet of only 276 today.

Yet the number, size, and duration of military deployments have increased dramatically since the end of the Cold War. Many soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are already on--or scheduled for-- their third or fourth overseas tour. Others have served even longer. Providing the proper funds to increase the number of soldiers and marines by 94,000 will considerably alleviate their burden and bolster the nation's ground forces as they continue to meet national security requirements.

I remember that "downsizing" after Desert Storm, when "doing more with less" was the motto of the day. When you live under the illusion of peace, that type of downsizing can seem reasonable (even though I knew at the time it was foolhardy).

Today, however, all but the most deluded Leftists should be able to recognize we do not live in a peaceful world where the "peace dividend" can be cashed in.

We are fighting terrorists on the open battlefield in Afghanistan and Iraq. And even if we can get the Democrats onboard with fighting the bad guys, it'll still take years of fighting them around the globe before we can demonstrate that we have more will to win than they do.

We are likely to face a major military operation, if not open war, with Iran in the next few years over their nuclear program (no, I'm not fooled by recent intelligence reports).

And China, despite all the smiles we send their way with each of our dollars, remains hostile to us and is building a world-class military force with those same dollars we're sending them. It won't be too many years before they're ready to threaten free Taiwan...and us.

I want the United States to remain free from foreign domination. I want it to remain that way for the rest of my life, and for the rest of my children's lives, and for the length of my children's children's lives.

The only way we can guarantee that is to put more emphasis on defense than we do providing things to people that people should be providing for themselves.