Our Greatest National Enemy

Sun Tzu about 500 BC wrote The Art of War. One of his main points is a nation must know its enemy thoroughly.

There are several critical military issues being debated in Washington today. Should the US have a combat presence in Iraq and Afghanistan? Should it be a limited presence? Should it be a non-combat presence? When should we withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan? How do we win the hearts and minds of the highly diverse population? Amidst this heated national debate on immediate military issues, we miss the critical issue – the coming substantial military budget cuts.

A key to understand what is going to impact our military budget is outlined in a major book by Arthur Laffer, The End of Prosperity. Today our national debt is in the $7 trillion level and in two years it could reach $10 trillion. If our national credit rating falls, the interest rate on our gigantic federal debt will rise. The critical decision in Washington today is whether to continue to spend or begin to reduce our federal debt. The government to reduce spending can reduce services and reduce government employees. To raise revenue the federal government must increase taxes and impose new fees. Laffer warns that if we allow the government to impose Higher Taxes that will doom our prosperity. He also warns that deficit spending must result in a coming era of high, destructive inflation.

The decision makers who must reduce government spending are our elected politicians. Today few of our elected officials have had combat experience and most have not had any military training. How our politicians will handle the budget cutting axe on our military is the key issue. The first step, which is being implemented now, will be to limit military budget increases after inflation to 1%. Politically it is difficult to ax entitlements such as social security, welfare, medical, food stamps, etc. We can have no illusions. Our greatest enemy is not from external attacks. It will be from domestic inflation. Our European allies are facing their financial crisis. Consequently their military will be impacted substantially.

It is essential that we maintain a quality volunteer army with the adequate budget to support our nation at war and peacetime with the highest quality soldiers, equipment, technology, and support services. The coming military budget cuts must occur. Let us support our elected political officials who will prevent the effective destruction of our military through necessary, but not crippling military budget cuts.