Is America Safer Under Barack Obama? >
Obama's Proposed Defense Budget Cuts Leave Us Vulnerable
The president's promise of a "peace dividend" is illusory
May 2, 2012
About James Jay Carafano:
James Jay Carafano directs Heritage's Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. Carafano is a 25-year veteran of the Army and his most recent book Private Sector/Public Wars: Contracting in Combat-Iraq, Afghanistan and Future Conflicts is a rigorous study of contractors' role on the battlefield and their impact on military effectiveness and civil society.
This question reminds me somewhat of the little kid in the back of the car asking, "Are we there yet?" Seeking a safer America is a trip that never ends. Security is not a goal to be achieved but a condition to be maintained.
[Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.]
So the real question is: Will President Obama's policies keep us safe in the future? Here there is real cause for concern. Planned cuts to defense and intelligence will take us back to the forces we fielded in the 1990s—forces that struggled to meet minor contingencies such as Bosnia and Kosovo. This left us unprepared for the world we faced after 9/11.
It's difficult to envision a force at this level being able to deal adequately with the security challenges we may face in the future. Other instruments of power are not a ready substitute for preparedness—for the capacity to address today's concerns and deter tomorrow's threats.
In fact, the opposite is true. Our diplomacy is most effective, our economy flourishes the most, and our liberties are best secured when we demonstrate the ability to protect ourselves and our interests.
[Read What Barack Obama's 'Forward' Slogan Really Means.]
President Obama's promise of a "peace dividend" is illusory. Under the cuts he has proposed, we will not be strong enough to protect ourselves or to promote peace.
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- Other Arguments
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No — Threats to national security have grown more dangerous under Obama
EDWARD A. TURZANSKI, National Security Analyst at La Salle University
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No — Treating terrorists like common criminals, and softening interrogation techniques, is playing with fire
NATHAN SALES, Law Professor at George Mason University School of Law
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Yes — Flaws of TSA, Homeland Security are a reminder that America and the president has also been lucky
LAWRENCE HUSICK, Co-chairman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Center for the Study of Terrorism
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Yes — Obama smartly built his national security strategy on the lessons of his predecessors
JAMES DOBBINS, Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation
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Yes — Obama's national security staff appointments have made America safer
WILLIAM F. DADDIO, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University
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Yes — The Obama administration's capable handling of national security policy has certainly made America safer
LAWRENCE J. KORB, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress
