politics
culture
Is it time to return to a citizen-solider society?
Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
RealClearInvestigations
0
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Genesis
Response
Penultimate
Finale
May 20th, 2021
America has maintained a war footing despite the peace that was promised at the end of the Cold War. After 9-11—the most devastating attack on our own soil—we felt justified in increasing defense spending. Unfortunately, America’s response best approximates the goal Bin Laden had in mind when he ordered the attack – a march towards national bankruptcy.
If we were allowed a hindsight do-over to reflect on the strategy set in motion by the Bush administration and pursued by the Obama administration, we might tell ourselves to consider a more economical path.
We face long-term competition against China—a modern, economic and military powerhouse. It’s time to reconsider how we compete in a world far different from the Cold War.
DoD has fought wars abroad successfully, but now it’s time to bring the defense home. A military conflict with China is unlikely, but we face other threats. Cyberattacks continue unabated. The Colonial pipeline ransom and the attempt to inject dangerous chemicals into a Florida community’s water supply are two recent examples. In addition, the Christmas bombing in Nashville demonstrated the vulnerability of our infrastructure.
Like the first Cold War, DoD could deter military conflict by building a force that provides a credible nuclear deterrent to Chinese military adventurism. This does not require a large conventional military force. The force not devoted to deterrence could be made up of citizen soldiers from the tech community, focused on Cyber and Space—key domains of 21st century competition. Then much of the DoD budget could be diverted to focus on rebuilding and protecting critical American infrastructure.
A true national security refresh would start by providing opportunity for Americans; And that comes by enabling economic opportunity.
In the aftermath of WWII and throughout the Cold War, the American dream equaled economic opportunity. American capital was invested in building economic productivity. The US government invested in infrastructure and science and technology, and American students became the scientists and engineers who ushered in some of the world’s greatest inventions. But then we went to war, and we stopped investing in ourselves as citizens.
Today, everyone wants to be like China. The Chinese Communist Party has absorbed and invested American innovation, technology, talent and capital into building the number two economy in the world—their own. Is it surprising that authoritarianism is beginning to have appeal even here at home?
We must leave a war-footing mentality abroad and adopt a rebuilding-footing at home. We do it by massively cutting the defense budget and focusing on deterring conflict. Then we invest the money saved into building a society our citizens will be inspired to embrace. If Americans want to return to the past ideal of Opportunity that attracted so many of our ancestors and new immigrants, we must start defending and repairing our home.
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