I am continually amazed at the way history plays tricks on us. For most of my life, it was the Democratic Party, liberals, leftists who hated America so much they kept wanting to cut the Defense budget so that we could get taken over by the Russians.
Now, we're in the middle of a two-front (at least) war, and it is the emergent Republican majority that wants to cut the Defense Department budget by close to 20%. Let me say that again - the new conservative majority in the House of Representatives, in the midst of wars they promoted, hyped, supported, even demanded, want to cut 20% from the budget of the Department of Defense. At no time in the past four years have Democrats in either house proposed trimming anything close to that.
Now, we can certainly entertain arguments about whether or not our Defense outlays are too large. The fact that we, the US, spend more on military than the rest of the world combined, certainly at least suggests that. All the same, we have tens of thousands of our armed forces personnel in harms way; they need equipment, and the proper equipment. They need better pay. They need, perhaps, more than mere moral support, or vocal support, from so many here in the US.
We can have debates about the size, scope, and priorities of the budget for the Department of Defense, it is incumbent upon us - all of us, most especially members of Congress who hold the purse strings - to maintain our fighting force in the field so they can achieve their strategic goals, safely and securely. They need support, and that really means, where the rubber meets the road - money.
One small benefit, I suppose, is we have the spectacle of a liberal, anti-war type of guy like me insisting that our troops need to be supported and the Defense budget remain unchanged while a bunch of right-wingers in Congress want to undercut our personnel risking their lives in far flung countries.
