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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2019)
Saturday, January 5, 2019 VIEWPOINTS East Oregonian A5 Should the U.S. increase military spending to keep pace with Russia and China? U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ridge Leon, File The USS Gerald R. Ford embarked on the first of its sea trials in 2017 from Newport News, Va. PRO: We need to beef up our military — and then some CON: U.S. military expenditures already dwarf our top rivals W C ASHINGTON — Beer, pizza armed forces need to be big enough to and defense. Americans spend defend the U.S. and its vital interests. more on each of these than any- And, for sure, defense spending ought one else. So what? These facts say noth- to be efficient and efficacious. That’s a ing about how happy, healthy or safe standard that should apply across all of we are. They are meaningless without our government. Our elected officials and context. public servants should be good stewards Perhaps Americans could do with for the American taxpayer — period. fewer jumbo slices and more gym mem- Adding all that context together, where berships. But when it comes to defense are we on defense spending? The answer spending, America needs to spend more, is: We are short of where we need to be. not less. Five years ago, my colleagues at The For starters, comparing our Heritage Foundation developed defense spending to that of other the Index of US Military Strength. nations doesn’t make much sense. Our analysts established an Walmart has more than 2 mil- objective, nonpartisan measure lion employees. The average of defense sufficiency that graded small business has fewer than how much military power Amer- ica actually has in terms of man- 100. Does that mean Walmart’s power, readiness and weap- payroll is out of whack? Of onry; what the armed forces are course not. The U.S. is a global power, required to do; and what the J ames J ay C arafano with global responsibilities and world was like — the actual COMMENT global economic interests to threats that must be addressed. defend. We need a defense budget Our latest analysis concludes commensurate with those respon- that, after years of over-use and sibilities and interests, not with other under-funding, the U.S. military is only nations’ lesser global posture. marginally prepared to fight and win in a Abandoning our responsibilities and two-conflict scenario (the standard bench- mark for a global power). interests is not a viable option. Europe Scrimping on training has resulted in can’t defend Europe without us — that’s low readiness levels. why we have NATO. President Barack Air Force pilots, for example, fly only a Obama tried walking away from the Mid- dle East — only to see ISIS and Iran start fraction of the training hours they used to. to take over. Does anyone think turning The force isn’t big enough. Asia over to China is a good idea? The Navy, for instance, was unable — No, the U.S. neither can nor should for the first time in a long time — to send be the world’s policeman. Nor is it our an aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean to responsibility to ensure all these places cover the Middle East. are the land of milk and honey. And the force isn’t modernizing fast But we do need to worry about big, enough. Marines are still driving combat destabilizing problems — things like wars vehicles built in 1972 — vehicles older and nuclear attack, that can spread untold than their drivers’ parents. misery around the world, to us and our America’s competitors can count. They friends included. see that our armed forces are too small Nor should a particular foreign policy and ill-prepared to take on two regional dictate the size of the Pentagon’s budget. powers simultaneously. They know that The wisdom of staying in Afghani- if America doesn’t rebuild soon, they can stan or hunting down terrorists in Africa soon match us in their part of the world. can be debated. Still, in the end, the mis- That’s a dangerous situation — with sions don’t tell you how big a military is consequences far more costly than paying required. for an adequate national defense. That would be like picking the size of James Jay Carafano is an Army veteran a fire department based on which fires you and vice president for national security and want to fight. A fire department has to be foreign policy at the Heritage Foundation big enough to protect the community. The think tank. AMERICA’S COMPETITORS CAN COUNT. THEY SEE THAT OUR ARMED FORCES ARE TOO SMALL AND ILL-PREPARED TO TAKE ON TWO REGIONAL POWERS SIMULTANEOUSLY. OLUMBUS, Ohio — We do not serving world security. We perplex our need to increase military spend- friends by actions like relocating our embassy to Jerusalem, or repudiating the ing to deal with Russia or China. climate treaty and the nuclear arrange- The 2019 military budget, authorized by ment with Iran. Congress, stands at $716 billion. That’s We are separating ourselves from the “billion” with a “b.” world community. We are pulling out of That figure dwarfs expenditures by treaties that call for resolving disputes China and Russia. China spends $175 peacefully, in the International Court of billion a year. Russia, whose economy Justice. is lagging badly, has cut military expen- diture in the past two years, and is now When Palestine sued us, as it did under $60 billion. recently, over the relocation of our Our competition with China embassy to Jerusalem, we is economic, not military. The overreacted. only arena for military conflict Palestine was able to get the case into the International Court is the South China Sea, but we of Justice because both Palestine don’t need a beefed up military and the United States are party for that purpose. to a multilateral diplomatic rela- In any event, we overplay tions treaty that lets states sue the importance of the South for violations of the law on dip- China Sea to U.S. trade or other lomatic relations. interests. J ohn B. Q uigley Seventy-one states of the With Russia, our competi- COMMENT tion is political, not military. We world are parties. Instead of have put Russia in fear by mov- just dealing with the lawsuit, ing NATO into its backyard. the White House announced That has generated reaction from Rus- that we will pull out of the treaty alto- gether. That is the same treaty that let sia. There is much we could do to ease us sue Iran when our people were taken tensions. hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran in Rather than spend more for military, 1979. we should examine current expendi- tures. We waste billions. We are build- We should be protecting peaceful ing a new class of aircraft carrier for the avenues to resolve disputes, not cutting them off. We should not fear application Navy with little assurance of quality. of universally agreed legal principles. The nuclear-powered USS Gerald R. Military confrontation with either Ford, the first carrier in this new class, is Russia or China is unlikely. If a seri- costing $13 billion. Now close to being ous confrontation were to come to pass, online, it is experiencing what the Pen- however, a U.S. president needs to have tagon gingerly calls “manufacturing sufficient credibility to be able to con- defect” issues. vince allies to assist, even if some of It has an untried digital propulsion their people would die in the effort. system that seems not to work. Carri- ers of this size, moreover, have been Now we have little assurance of a shown in war games to be vulnerable to response we might get. Our allies deal anti-ship weaponry that has grown more with Trump by appealing to his ego. sophisticated in recent years. So even They do not regard him as a reliable if the Navy can get the USS Gerald R. partner. They doubt his judgment, and Ford to sail, it may not serve its pur- even his truthfulness. Security lies in being able to mobilize pose. And the Navy wants three more. support from other countries in a cri- If our security in the world is in jeop- sis situation. We have enough weaponry. ardy, it is not for lack of military hard- Spending more on weapons is a short- ware. It is because of our policies. sighted avenue to national security. Our allies don’t know what to expect John B. Quigley is a professor of law from us. They are aghast at President at the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio Donald Trump’s refusal to participate State University. in initiatives they find important to pre- IF OUR SECURITY IN THE WORLD IS IN JEOPARDY, IT IS NOT FOR LACK OF MILITARY HARDWARE. IT IS BECAUSE OF OUR POLICIES.