This is a more important question than it would seem. After all, we spend more money on our military than the next seven major countries combined. Does spending more money make us more secure? Under normal circumstances, I would say yes, but we don’t live in a time of normal circumstance.
Our national security is not just a spending issue. It is a complex problem where any one of many components could provide a breakdown of serious or even catastrophic proportions. You can have the biggest “Dirty Harry” gun on the block and still shoot yourself in the foot. Our national security is provided by the sum total of our military equipment, our military training, our military leadership, our intelligence capability, and the guidance given by our political leaders who must decide where, when, and how. Right now, I trust the first three, with the usual caveats, but the last two are highly suspect.
Our intelligence capability is a riddle wrapped in a mystery. In addition to the usual alphabet soup of three-letter agencies like the CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, BIR, et al., we have our State Department, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Homeland Security, etc., totaling at least 17 bureaus and agencies, that we know of, who are responsible for our intelligence gathering and analysis. These entities gobble up over 67 billion of our tax dollars. While I don’t doubt the capabilities of this group of intelligence gatherers, I do reserve judgment for their ability to both coordinate all of these efforts for the common good and the utility of this information when it either is ignored or bears a message some may not want to hear. Two recent major examples of this breakdown were 9-11 and Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
This brings us to the real fly in the national security ointment, the guidance of our political leaders who must decide where, when, and how to use what they know for our nation’s protection. Twenty-six of our 45 presidents have served in some capacity in the military, but only ten served in the last century and none yet in the new millennium. Military service should not be a prerequisite for becoming the Commander-in-Chief of all of our armed forces, but that person should be willing to at least listen to our intelligence services and our military commanders and weigh the advice coming from those with solid professional backgrounds.
Regrettably, our current Commander-in-Chief, has no military experience, doesn’t trust or believe our intelligence services, doesn’t listen to his own military advisors, but does apparently listen to advice from foreign leaders including our enemies, and readily takes advice from television talk show hosts on a variety of topics. This is not only a dangerous situation but also a recipe for disaster.
Our congressional leaders are not much better when it comes to their pliability if faced with possible career-ending decisions. None of them seems willing or able to stand up to this president, even when they know he is dangerously wrong. It would seem that most would readily sacrifice the security of our nation for another term in office. The patriotic cacophony heard from the right-wing fringe, represented somewhere within the 35-45% of the Trump base, inspires fear in those whose political futures have been hitched to the Trump star (meteorite?). Consider in the mix the Military-Industrial Complex, whose mission is to profit from international discord, and you have another card yanked from the precarious tower that represents the codependency of the many pieces of our national security puzzle.
For those whose sense of national security and pride is defined by the size of the American flag in their front yard and how many Pabst Blue Ribbon beers they drank at the Fourth of July picnic, I would say, your naiveté is putting us all in danger. The Republicans of my youth believed in our institutions and respected our military. This president, and his followers by extension, have placed this nation in grave danger. You can’t say you are a patriotic American and support our military but also support a president who trusts neither his military advisors nor his intelligence services.
Donald Trump claims to be the smartest person in any room but hides his grades and has threatened his schools with lawsuits if they reveal any information. His bone spurs kept him out of the military but never hampered his golf game. He said that he would hire the best people to assuage our fears of his lack of experience but has fired anyone who offered an opinion that differs from his own preconceived notions. With Donald Trump as our president, our national security will be hampered and compromised to a degree that places us all at risk.
We need to remember in November. Whomever we select to be our president in 2020, they need to be intelligent enough to listen to advice. There is nothing more dangerous than a person who doesn’t know what they don’t know.
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