John Stossel had an interesting discussion with Christopher Preble, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the CATO Institute concerning the current role of our military in the world.
"We have to rethink the purpose of our military," Preble said. "Start from scratch. Start from the core function, which is to defend the United States, and expect, and demand that other countries play the primary role of defending themselves and to police their respective regions."
Our defense budget is 20% of the overall Federal budget and growing every year. "We are spending more, in real terms today," says Preble, "than we did at the height of the Cold war...the height of the Reagan build-up...the height of the Viet Nam war...the height of the Korean war. More today than at anytime during the Cold War."
Preble contends that we are not fighting the Cold War any longer and that we do not need the same level of presence or spending that we did during that time. We do not need troops in Korea and Germany any longer...who are we protecting them from? "We've frightened ourselves and we've taken on the responsibility of doing for other governments what they should do for themselves," said Preble.
I think he makes some very good and reasonable points. There is no Constitutional basis for being the policemen of the world or providing "humanitarian" military intervention anytime people we like are being killed. I struggle a bit with what our responsibility to come to the aid of our allies, but I agree that what we are doing now is not correct and must be rethought from scratch.
Watch the interview for yourself. Let me know what you think.
