Obama’s Dangerous Defense Cuts
Gingrich Productions
February 28, 2014
Newt Gingrich
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Obama’s gutting of our armed forces could make us vulnerable to the greatest disaster for the U.S. military in half a century.
The Obama administration announced this week that it would shrink the Army to its smallest size since before World War II. This is a dangerous decision that projects weakness to our enemies and our friends alike.
We should not be fooled into thinking there is some great savings in this reduction. We may cut spending by a modest amount in the short term (money which will surely be wasted elsewhere), but we risk a long term cost that is much greater–one counted in lives as well as in dollars.
Indeed, as Americans we know too well the cost of unpreparedness. More than 2,300 Americans died at Pearl Harbor. Another 12,000 Americans and more than 60,000 Filipinos were immediately taken prisoner in Bataan following that attack, and an estimated 10,000 ended up dying.
We paid the price of weakness again nine years later in 1950, when 75,000 North Koreans came barreling over the 38th parallel unexpectedly and killed tens of thousands of South Koreans who were unprepared and poorly armed). More than 36,000 Americans lost their lives in that war.
The advocates of decline believe we cannot afford our current armed forces. But what we really cannot afford is weakness. Our struggles in Iraq and Afghanistan proved that the need to sustain two wars at once is not a crazy hypothetical.
For half a century, American defense policy has been based on the principle that being strong is safer than being week.
American strength has produced a much safer and more stable world. With the exception of the September 11 attacks (which were conducted by zealots determined to die for their cause), the threat of overwhelming force has worked to keep Americans safe–not to mention the hundreds of millions of people in allied countries around the world whose safety is guaranteed by our strength.
But to be effective, the threat of deterrence must be credible. Obama’s plan to cut the Army signals American weakness virtually everywhere. Obama is setting the stage for potential defeats on a scale America has never seen before.
And make no mistake. We will be tested. Our enemies will probe us to see what they can get away with. Our men and women in the military will be put at risk.
President Obama’s decision to shrink the military is rooted in naiveté and a delusion about the world–that all the big military threats disappeared with the Soviet Union. That is wishful thinking. If anything, the world today is more chaotic and less predictable. Today we have less understanding of the threats against us than we did during the Cold War.
We do know that the unexpected can happen. Watch Ukraine and Russia this weekend. Ask yourself. Do you really want America to be as weak as President Obama has proposed? If not, call your Congressman and Senators and let them know.
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