Sequestra-tion mechan-ism will lead to “Inability to Defend the Nation”
Billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts are scheduled to hit the Defense Department beginning next January. These cuts, amounting to half of the total $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts over the next decade, would result in the “smallest Air Force in the history of the United States, the smallest Navy since 1940, and the smallest Army since 1915.
“Those cuts, in the words of the secretary of defense and all our uniformed leaders, would jeopardize our national security. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said it would be devastating,” said Senator John McCain last week in an interview with NEWSMAX intended: “to warn the country of the devastating effects of this sequestration and, literally, our inability to defend the nation.”
The recent history of the United States has been one of tearing down and building up our national defense structure. World War I was the war to end all wars. Afterwards we disarmed. Then came World War II. We were terribly unprepared. That cost many lives and much of our national resources. Once again, we disarmed.
Our lack of preparedness contributed to the Communist attack on South Korea. We responded with troops poorly trained for the mission and poorly equipped. Finally a truce was agreed to and once again we disarmed while quietly engaging in another war in Vietnam.
The war in Vietnam was won on the battlefield and lost in the media, academia and in the halls of Congress. Enemies within the United States and in Congress withdrew support from the people we pledged to protect and abandoned them to a Communist dictatorship. The nation also betrayed the individuals who were sent into battle by the civilian political leaders who would betray them.
The nation and especially the military were demoralized and national defense once again cut to the bone while the Russians and other enemies of the republic were gaining strength and influence in the world.
President Jimmy Carter betrayed our allies in Iran placing his hope in a bearded “holy man.” That decision, and others equally ill-conceived, led to the demise of Carter, the peanut farmer posing as a nuclear scientist who managed to further demoralize the nation and the military after Vietnam.
Along came Ronald Reagan, who set us on a right course again. He led the nation to unparalleled prosperity and built up our military strength to the point that the Soviet Union collapsed trying to compete.
Despite what we were told by the liberal media and our political leaders, Communism was not dead. It was alive and well in Russia, Cuba, China, in the United States and elsewhere.
President George W. Bush was able to maintain a minimum strength of the military by stretching the reserve forces and National Guard to the limit while fighting two wars after the attack on September 11, 2001.
Our current president is abandoning those wars without assuring a lasting victory and a secure future for the people for whom we fought and died and expended our national resources and wealth.
We are currently living in the most dangerous world that has existed in our lifetimes. For the first time, we are faced with enemies within as well as outside our borders.
Our nation is faced with overwhelming debt and the Obama administration is intentionally throwing money to the wind and to their political friends as if to intentionally make things worse.
The president is posing for photos with military personnel and giving lip service to their issues, but behind the scenes he is undermining their future success in battle by cutting their numbers and canceling essential weapons contracts, and jeopardizing their medical care.
A few leaders are speaking out about the excessive cuts while President Obama, the Commander-in-Chief, sits on the sidelines. Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “It would be, in the words of Leon Panetta, a brigade without bullets, a navy without ships, an Air Force without trained pilots. It would be like shooting yourself in the head. It would be the most destructive thing in the world and it’s going to happen come January – unless Republicans and Democrats can find a substitute.”
“Now we’re facing on the first of January, cuts in defense on top of already $480 billion, around $500 billion,” said Sen. McCain.
McCain blames lawmakers of both parties but especially President Barack Obama who is sitting on the sidelines and not taking an active role in assuring the defense of the nation, his primary duty as Commander-in-Chief.
“We will take the blame for it, but there’s only one commander-in-chief. And that commander-in-chief right now is sitting on the sidelines watching this doomsday scenario unfold – This cries out for presidential leadership and this president, in my view, is not exercising one shred of it.”
