The
best defense
By Linda A. Prussen-Razzano
web
posted September 13, 1999
On the wall of my father's bedroom, next to his Mensa membership
letter and bachelors degree, hangs a certificate from the United States
Army. This faded, slightly yellowed document certifies his completion
of a course in the building of bomb shelters. As a civil engineer who
worked extensively with the government, he could provide interesting insight
into the physical requirements necessary to adequately protect human life
from the effects of a bomb blast.
After having been treated to one of his brutally thorough,
scientifically specific dissertations on this topic, I concluded I would
rather be caught at ground zero than survive. It would be mercy for my
beloved family and I to meet our Maker than to live in the aftermath.
From the 1950s until the recent collapse of the Soviet
Union under President Reagan, several generations of Americans grew up
under the shadow of nuclear war. It was an ever present, if peripheral
threat that worked its way into novel plot lines, songs, and made-for-television
movies. The term MAD did not represent anger or insanity, but Mutually
Assured Destruction.
Our military leaders recognized that our best defense was
a good offense. If anyone dared to threaten our great country, we could
assure that they had only moments to celebrate their attack before they,
and everyone they knew and held dear, met their final demise. The notion
that the launching of just one aggressive missile could end all life,
worldwide, kept the superpowers in check.
Sadly, we no longer maintain the same aggressive posture.
Our military has been gutted, our soldiers' families are receiving sensitivity
training and living on food-stamps, our nuclear stockpiles are being destroyed,
and our resources are stretched thin. Americans are finally beginning
to understand just how serious our situation is; in response, Congress
is now pushing for a missile defense system.
Should President Clinton actually implement it, it's still
too little, too late.
Congress should accept the July 15, 1998 recommendations
by the Commission to Access the Ballistic Missile Threat of the United
States, which warned that our national defense must be "revised to
reflect the reality of the environment in which there may be very little
or no warning" of an eminent nuclear attack. Sources inside the FBI
International Terrorism Task Force warn that foreign agents operating
on American soil are a very real threat. The White House, in conjunction
with the Department of Defense and Department of Justice, has formed several
rapid response teams to deal with biological and other types of warfare
conducted on American soil.
Our greatest threat no longer lies in a distant land. It
is much, much closer to home.
Instead of shelling out millions to bulk up Russia's nuclear
detection system and providing $6 billion on loans to foreign armies,
Congress should instead institute the following changes:
- Stop allowing the Clinton Administration to use our military personnel
as handmaidens for the United Nations. Every time they do, we pay for
it.
- Stop allowing the Clinton Administration to use our military personnel
as babysitters for terrorist factions. Every time they do, we pay for
it.
- Raise the pay for our military personnel. The families of American
soldiers should not be reduced to government handouts, especially when
they are devoting their lives in defense of our country. This is a national
disgrace.
- Make standards for basic military training gender neutral. I'm all
for women in the military, so long as they can carry their weight and
deal with real life in the barracks. If they don't meet the basic requirements
that men must meet, they shouldn't be there. If they are going to whine
about rough language and crude behavior, they should go work for the
United Nations or the Peace Corp. A chain is only as strong as its weakest
link.
- Stop "coddling dictators" and "terrorists." Kill
them instead.
- Stop the Administration from spending valuable military funds on silly
programs such as "sensitivity training." Our folks in uniform
should be trained to kill the enemy and survive against the enemy, in
that order. Stop pretending they enlisted to pick flowers or act as
social workers; they enlisted to defend America.
- Stop cutting funding to our Navy, America's first true world-wide
defense. When we have battlegroups departing from our shores at only
67 per cent of basic allowance, instead of the mandated 90 per cent,
we are in serious trouble. In other words, we are in serious trouble.
- Stop the Administration from ordering military personnel to show up
at carefully orchestrated Presidential photo-ops. It only depresses
them; morale and the re-enlistment rate are low enough already.
- Pay attention the Panama Canal, and stop presuming that Hutchinson
Whampoa's presence is not a military threat. Approximately half of China's
current arsenal can strike American soil in minutes from the Canal.
- Revoke China's MFN status. The cowards in Congress had an opportunity
to do so recently, and failed miserably. Get rid of them.
- Stop closing bases and stop allowing Chinese front companies to lease
the empty ones. Cox, Inhofe, Weldon, and a handful of others can't continue
to do this by themselves.
- Stop cross-training troops from other countries. Stop giving military
aid to countries that are a known threat to the United States. It's
the same as inviting criminals into your home and then giving them your
gun so they can shoot you.
- Stop funding to Russia's disarmament program. The intelligence community
has confirmed that they are using to funds to arm, not disarm. Stop
paying them to build weapons they can use against us.
- Refuse to fund the Clinton Administration's military "agreements,"
which in essence carry the same weight as treaties. The terminology
is just a formality that allows them to sidestep approval by Congress.
If Congress doesn't approve it, don't appropriate funding for it. America
is a representative republic, not a monarchy.
- Kill Executive Orders, such as EO13083 and it's descendants, upon
arrival. They violate various sections of the Constitution, specifically
those protecting the rights of the people and the states. Again, America
is a representative republic, not a monarchy.
- Demand that spies like Peter Lee be executed, instead of allowing
the courts to give them a slap on the wrist and community service. Treason
is a capital offense.
- Bring our level of military spending and readiness back up to Cold
War standards.
- Demand the resignation of Madeline Albright, who has created more
international messes than I care to count.
- Beg General Norman Schwartzkopf to come out of retirement and show
General "Sensitivity Training" Sheldon the door.
- Fumigate the White House and muzzle Joe Lockhardt. Need I say more?
- Demand Reno's resignation and install an Attorney General who will
take requests for wire-taps on potential spies seriously.
- Release the LaBella Memo and LaBella's unredacted report, so that
Americans can see for themselves just how thick Reno's "presidential
knee pads" are.
- Release the unredacted Cox Report, so that Americans will understand
just how badly our national security has been compromised.
- Increase funding to the FBI to counter terrorism threats in the United
States. The enemy is already here; let the FBI find them.
- Stop decreasing the restrictions on encryption. Why make it easier
for the enemy to communicate privately?
- Increase funding to our forward ops. Enough said.
- Stop hoping to make Chinagate an "election year issue."
Start hosting daily press conferences so folks like Weldon, Cox, and
Inhofe will not feel so alone when they rage about the gross betrayal
of national security.
- Stop giving a darn what the President thinks about the Defense Budget.
He "loathes" the military, anyway. Take your case to the American
people, and demand they put pressure on their representatives.
In other words, bulk up the military to the same mean fighting
machine that won the Cold War, and install leaders and advisors who understand
the World Theater. Don't let ignorant incompetents make policy or issue
policy statements, which only prompt laughter from our foes.
These are just for starters, and half of them won't cost
a dime.
If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. 
Linda Prussen-Razzano is an advisory board member and
frequent contributor to Rightgrrl
and a columnist for the American
Partisan.
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