Pat Dollard | Young Americans

(IBD)

How will Barack Obama and friends fund their plan to spread Joe the Plumber’s wealth? They intend to beat our swords into welfare checks, leaving America exposed to its mortal enemies.

In a revealing meeting with the editorial board of the Southcoast (Mass.) Standard-Times last week, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., called for a 25% cut in military spending, saying: “We don’t need all these fancy new weapons.” Judging from his past comments, Obama seems to agree. He says we should talk to our enemies. Obama, Frank and the Democratic caucus would have us speak softly and carry no stick at all.

The irony here is that this call to disarm is coming from the party of Franklin Roosevelt, who called the United States the “arsenal of democracy.” Obama is a far cry from Harry Truman or the Jack Kennedy who said that only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt will we be certain beyond doubt they will never be employed.

It’s “fancy new weapons” that now provide a rudimentary amount of protection against ballistic missile attack both here and abroad. What olive branch does Obama suppose will protect against Iraq’s Shahab missiles, once they’re armed with nuclear warheads?

In a video presentation to the far-left group Caucus for Priorities, Obama revealed just where Frank’s 25% cut might come from. “I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems,” he said. “I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems. I will institute an independent defense priorities board to ensure that the Quadrennial Review is not used to justify unnecessary defense spending.”

So forget about national missile defense or responding to a realistic assessment of our enemies’ intentions and capabilities.

In July, when Iran conducted tests of missiles capable of reaching Israel, Obama called for “aggressive diplomacy” and said Iran “must suffer threats of economic sanctions with direct diplomacy opening up channels of communication so we avoid provocation, but we give strong incentives for the Iranians to change their behavior.” Wow, that’s telling them.

John McCain said Iran’s tests showed that we need effective missile defense “now and in the future,” including the planned missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland. Rather than unilateral disarmament, McCain has also said: “We must continue to deploy a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent, robust missile defenses and superior conventional forces that are capable of defending ourselves and our allies.”

Caucus for Priorities is a campaign of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Its mission is to “change U.S. budget priorities to reflect a national commitment to education, healthcare, energy independence, job training and deficit reduction — at no additional taxpayer expense — by eliminating funding for unneeded Cold War-era weapons systems.”

That will certainly deter a rearming and expansionist Russia, an ambitious China and a dangerous Iran. If Obama wins, the “obsolete Cold War weapons” to be done away with, to Russian and Chinese glee, include the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the F/A-22 Raptor to replace our aging F-15s, the wings of which are literally falling off. The Raptor can fly to and from Iranian nuclear facilities undetected should the need arise, as it very well may at some point.

Frank, Obama and the Caucus for Priorities would eliminate two Air Force fighter wings. Our already depleted Navy would eliminate an aircraft carrier group as both China and Russia are building them. Gone too would be the Virginia-class attack submarine and the DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class destroyer.

Unfortunately, people in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran will be defining our needs for us. And as our enemies turn out everything from ballistic missile submarines to anti-satellite weapons, we’d do well to remember that providing for national defense is in the U.S. Constitution and that job training is not.

Caucus for Priorities says its goal is to “redirect 15% of the Pentagon’s discretionary budget away from obsolete Cold War weapons towards education, healthcare, job training, alternative energy development, world hunger, deficit reduction.”

To which we and John McCain say that the greatest social service a government can perform for its people is to keep them alive and free.

(picture via Kurt-Shopped)